By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures slipped in Asian trading hours Friday ahead of data likely to provide vital clues on the state of the U.S. economy.
The benchmark U.S. July contract for light, sweet crude oil CLN2 -0.22% slipped 14 cents to $86.39 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On Thursday, crude futures had fallen $1.29, or 1.5%, to $86.53 a barrel, marking the lowest settlement for the contract since Oct. 20.
Oil futures finished May with a loss of 17%, their worst drop since December 2008. Read more on Thursday's oil trading.
Recent strength in the U.S. dollar has put broad pressure on the dollar-denominated commodities sector.
On Friday, the dollar index DXY +0.08% stood at 83.185 early Friday, up from 83.035 in late North American trading Thursday. Read more on currencies.
U.S. jobs data were due out later in the global trading day, and economists surveyed by MarketWatch projected that the U.S. added a net 170,000 jobs last month.
Such a result would be up from an initial reading of 115,000 in April but far slower than the average of 252,000 jobs created during the December-February period. Read payrolls preview.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
