By Virginia Harrison and William L. Watts, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch)—Crude-oil futures retreated in electronic trading Friday as traders turned their attention to U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for September, after two roller-coaster sessions for the commodity amid tensions in the Middle East and worries about demand.
Crude for November delivery CLX2 -0.98% declined 81 cents, or 0.9%, to $90.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“Today all attention will switch to the U.S. jobs report, with the market trading with global risk sentiment and against the U.S. dollar,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, strategist at VTB Capital in London.
Oil had shot up 4.1% in Thursday’s regular session as a weaker dollar and concerns about supply from the Middle East aided in crude’s rebound from a sharp drop in the previous session. See: Oil tops $91 as Syria conflict feeds supply fears.
For the week, crude is trading down 0.9%.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch predict the U.S. economy added 110,000 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate seen ticking up to 8.2% from 8.1%. Read preview of September U.S. jobs report.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, November gasoline futures RBX2 -0.48% slipped 1.35 cents to $2.9294 a gallon, while heating oil HOX2 -0.95% lost 2.85 cents, or 0.9%, to $3.1599 a gallon.
Natural-gas futures for November delivery NGX12 -0.18% gained 2 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.426 per million British thermal units.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
William L. Watts is MarketWatch's European bureau chief, based in Frankfurt.
