By Claudia Assis and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures traded below $100 a barrel Friday as data showed that the U.S. economy created fewer jobs than expected in April, adding to worries about the health of the recovery.
Crude for June delivery CLM2 -3.10% dropped $2.83, or 2.8%, to $99.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Weekly losses were hovering around 5%,
“Crude has fallen sharply since Tuesday and is under further pressure today,” said David Morrison, senior market strategist at GFT Global Markets.
Oil added to losses after the Labor Department reported that U.S. nonfarm payrolls expanded 115,000 last month, shy of the 163,000 expected by the economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Employment gains for March and February were revised higher from previous estimates, however. Read more about the employment report.
Disappointing economic data tend to raise concerns about the strength of the economy and oil demand in the U.S., the world’s largest consumer of oil.
“This was not a great report, and financial markets are likely to remain very concerned about a slowing pace of job creation,” said Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics in a note to clients. “The current level of labor-force participation is at the lowest level since December 1981. Rapid declines in the participation rate are not a positive way to make the unemployment rate fall.”
Oil futures were already trading lower ahead the jobs report, extending losses from the preceding session. Crude closed at its lowest level in two weeks Thursday, tumbling $2.68, or 2.6%, to settle at $102.54 a barrel.
“Globally, economic data is surprising to the downside, particularly across the euro zone and U.S. This suggests a continued moderation in the rate of growth for oil demand,” GFT’s Morrison wrote in emailed comments.
Also weighing on crude futures, Wednesday’s U.S. inventories report revealed another big rise in stockpiles, the sixth in a row, putting crude supplies at a 21-year high.
Meanwhile, the broader suite of energy futures tracked oil lower. Gasoline for June delivery RBM2 -2.24% fell 7 cents, or 2.2%, to $2.98 a gallon. June heating-oil futures HOM2 -2.31% dropped 7 cents, or 2.3%, to $3.02 a gallon.
June natural-gas futures NGM12 -2.74% shed 7 cents, or 3%, to $2.27 per million British thermal units.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch. Polya Lesova in New York contributed to this report.
Barbara Kollmeyer is an editor for MarketWatch in Madrid.
