By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Benchmark Nymex crude-oil futures weakened slightly in Asian trading hours Friday, ahead of a key U.S. jobs report due out later in the global trading day.
Light, sweet crude-oil futures for July delivery CLN11 -1.22% edged down 3 cents to $100.37 a barrel in Nymex electronic trading. The contract gained 11 cents in regular trading in New York on Thursday.
As oil futures slipped on Friday, the dollar index DXY -0.28% edged higher to 74.350, from 74.344 in late North American trading on Thursday.
Commodities are priced in dollars and generally move inversely to the U.S. currency.
“Heading into the weekend break, it’s very much a case of all eyes on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls that are slated for release later in the session,” said a trader at IG Markets.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls data are due out early in the U.S. trading day Friday. Economists have scaled back expectations for job additions this week following some very soft data on manufacturing and jobs on Wednesday.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch now expect 125,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in May, compared to 244,000 job additions in April. Read nonfarm payrolls preview.
Energy analysts at MF Global said they believe energy markets will also start to focus on a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next week, “where mixed signals are being sent as to what the cartel will do.”
