By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Oil futures slipped in electronic trading hours in Asia on Friday, ahead of a key employment report that will likely provide some clues about the health of the U.S. economy.
Benchmark oil futures for October delivery CL1V -0.57% declined 17 cents to $88.76 in Nymex electronic trading.
On Thursday, oil futures ended the regular trading session in New York on a mildly positive note, as manufacturing data from the U.S. and China gave investors some hope for the trajectory of economic performance. Read more on oil’s moves Thursday.
Still, mixed economic data hasn’t been particularly supportive for the energy markets recently, according to strategists at MF Global.
“There are countervailing influences at work in the energy markets, with weather concerns limiting the extent of any declines, while patchy economic data [are] standing in the way of a more sustained advance,” they said.
Spearheading the data calendar on Friday is the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect that the U.S. economy added just 53,000 jobs in August, which would be less than half the number added in July. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 9.1%. The new jobs figures are due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. See preview of U.S. jobs report.
The MF Global economists said that they believe the August U.S. jobs figure could be even weaker than expected.
“We suspect the jobs number will come in less than expected, as there has been a spate of layoff announcements over last few weeks that will likely put a substantial dent in the overall increase,” they said. “As a result, we could see yet another sloppy day in the U.S. equity markets, with weakness possibly spilling over into commodities.”
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
