Oil fell for a fifth day to the lowest price in almost eight months on signs of an economic slowdown in the U.S. and China. London’s Brent crude dropped from the lowest close in one and a half years. Futures declined as much as 2 percent, extending last week’s 8.4 percent decline to the lowest close since Oct. 7 after U.S. unemployment rose and payrolls increased less than the most-pessimistic forecasts. China’s purchasing managers’ index fell to the lowest level in a year, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said yesterday in Beijing. European leaders remain divided on solutions for the region’s debt crisis. “When we see weak numbers in China and very weak job numbers in the U.S., it kicks away at the foundations,� said Michael McCarthy, a chief market strategist at CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty in Sydney. “If the European situation is dragging both Asia and the U.S. into a contracting economic situation, then that is very bad for oil.� Oil for July delivery fell as much as $1.64 to $81.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $81.79 at 12:38 p.m. in Singapore. Prices slid 3.8 percent on June 1, capping the biggest weekly drop since Sept. 23. Oil is 17 percent lower this year. Brent futures for July settlement were at $97.20 a barrel, down 1.3 percent, on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The European benchmark closed June 1 at the lowest level since January 2011 after falling below $100 for the first time since October. The contract’s premium to New York-traded crude was $15.38 today, compared with $15.20 on June 1. U.S. Jobs China’s purchasing managers’ index decreased to 55.2 in May from 56.1 in April. That’s the lowest reading since March 2011, when the federation started seasonally adjusting the data. A Chinese manufacturing index signaled the weakest reading in five months in May, the data showed last week. In the U.S., payrolls climbed by 69,000 last month, the Labor Department said June 1. The median projection called for a 150,000 May advance, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 87 economists. The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent and has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest such stretch since monthly records began in 1948. Iran will insist that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries keep its current production ceiling for crude when OPEC’s ministers meet this month in Vienna, Iranian state-run Press TV reported yesterday, citing Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi. Unity at OPEC Iraq has agreed with Iran to adopt a unified position on OPEC output and emphasized the need for the group’s members to produce in line with their collective target, Press TV said in a separate report, citing a meeting between Qasemi and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad on June 2. Iran is OPEC’s second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia, which has increased supplies as U.S. and European sanctions threaten to curb the Islamic republic’s exports. OPEC produced 31.6 million barrels a day in April, 5 percent more than its 30 million barrel-a-day ceiling, according to monthly estimates from its secretariat. Hedge funds cut bullish oil bets for a fourth week before futures plunged. Money managers reduced net-long positions, or wagers that oil prices will rise, to 136,584 in the week ended May 29, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitments of Traders report on June 1. It was the lowest level since September 2010. To contact the reporters on this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net; Nayla Razzouk in Dubai at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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