By Surabhi Sahu Crude-oil futures were lower in Asian trade Monday as investors booked profits after Nymex crude got a boost Friday from the positive U.S. non-farm payrolls report. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $91.83 a barrel at 0637 GMT, down $0.12 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.36 to $110.49 a barrel. The U.S. Labor Department said U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs in February, far more than the 160,000 forecast by economists. Unemployment fell 0.2 percentage point to 7.7%, the lowest level since the end of 2008. However, the euphoria from upbeat U.S. employment data was short-lived as attention turned to high U.S. crude stockpiles and bearish economic data--industrial output and retail sales--from China, market participants said. "Slow consumption growth and fast investment growth in the first two months [of 2013] remind us what happened in 2009 when Chinese economy was artificially boosted by investment. This is not a favorable scenario given Chinese government is shifting their focus to the quality of growth away from the quantity of growth," OCBC Bank said in a research note Monday. The Brent-WTI spread narrowed last week to under $18.50/bbl as Brent crude was pressured after pipeline problems were resolved and production restored at the Buzzard oil field in the U.K. North Sea. "From here, we expect some flattening in the spread curve and we feel that Brent-WTI will rebound back to above the $20/bbl mark this week," Jim Ritterbusch at Ritterbusch & Associates said in a note late Friday. "We look for WTI to be the main driver of the spread next week given an expected crude build of at least 2 million-3 million barrels in total and only slight slippage in Cushing stocks," Mr. Ritterbusch said. Investors await a eurozone finance ministers' meeting scheduled Monday in Brussels, ahead of the E.U. leaders summit on March 14-15, where the leaders will likely discuss bailout terms for Cyprus and the Italian political deadlock, a Tokyo-based trader said. Meanwhile, persistent supply risks in the Middle East will likely support Brent crude, the trader said, tipping support for the European benchmark at $109.27/bbl today. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for April--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 200 points to $3.2235 a gallon, while April heating oil traded at $2.9694, 55 points lower. ICE gasoil for March changed hands at $926.00 a metric ton, up $1.50 from Friday's settlement. Write to Surabhi Sahu at surabhi.sahu@dowjones.com

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