By Sara Sjolin and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) — Oil futures slipped on Friday, although still pushing toward a 3% advance for the week, as investors awaited U.S. jobs figures for further signals about energy demand. Crude oil for September delivery CLU3 -0.72% dropped 33 cents, or 0.3%, to $107.56 a barrel, after trading above the $108 level earlier in the day. The losses came after Thursday’s rise of $2.86, or 2.7%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices were looking at a weekly gain of about 3.1%, with energy-demand prospects brightening on Thursday as applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to their lowest level since January 2008. Initial jobless claims dropped by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000. Also, the Institute for Supply Management said its U.S. manufacturing activity index for July posted the best reading in more than two years. This week’s marquee report — the nonfarm payrolls data — is slated to arrive at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, with the Labor Department expected to say the economy added 180,000 net jobs, according to a MarketWatch survey of economists. The unemployment rate is forecast to decline to 7.5% from 7.6%. Crédit Agricole foresees “a solid 200,000 gain� in July jobs and a decline in the unemployment rate to 7.5%. It also expects the report to show the average workweek for all employees to remain unchanged at 34.5 hours, and for a 0.1% increase in average hourly earnings. The jobs report will be closely watched “as the Fed wants to see an improved labor-market outlook before beginning to pare back its monthly asset purchases. We believe that an employment report in line with our forecasts would meet that requirement,� said Crédit Agricole chief North America economist Michael Carey in a report. Earlier this week, ADP reported that the private sector added 200,000 jobs last month. That and the stronger-than-expected ISM PMI reading were among the data that contributed to Crédit Agricole’s above-consensus forecast. The Federal Reserve says improvement in the labor market is a key component in its assessment of its monetary-stimulus program. After its policy meeting earlier this week, the Fed slightly downgraded its economic view and didn’t offer any signals as to when it would start tapering asset purchases, currently set at $85 billion a month. Ahead of the jobs report, September Brent crude fell UK:LCOU3 -0.75% 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $109.38 a barrel on ICE Futures. Prices on Thursday jumped $1.84, or 1.7%. September gasoline RBU3 -1.08% slipped 1 cent to $3.01 a gallon, and September heating oil HOU3 -0.85% lost a penny to $3.09 a gallon. Natural gas for September delivery NGU13 -0.30% added 1 cent, or 0.4%, to $3.4 per million British thermal units. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday reported a natural-gas supply increase of 59 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 26. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a climb of between 54 billion cubic feet and 58 billion cubic feet. Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter based in London. Follow her on Twitter @sarasjolin. Carla Mozee is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @MWMozee.

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