Oil hovers above $66 in Asia after weak jobs data

[July 03, 2009]  SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices hovered above $66 a barrel Friday in Asia in light holiday trading a day after grim unemployment numbers from the U.S. and Europe sent crude prices tumbling.

Benchmark crude for August delivery slipped 30 cents to $66.46 a barrel by late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, it fell $2.58, nearly 4 percent, to settle at $66.73.

Trading in the U.S. is closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Oil came off an eight-month intraday high of $73.38 a barrel earlier this week on growing investor concerns that a doubling of the crude price since March isn't justified by a sluggish global economy.

Weak jobs figures released Thursday suggested consumption will remain tepid and crude demand may not pick up quickly.

A Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy lost a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high.

Unemployment in the 16 countries that use the euro spiked to a ten-year high in May, also at 9.5 percent.

The dismal economic data undermined investor confidence and sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 2.6 percent Thursday. Most Asian stock indexes also opened lower Friday.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for August delivery was steady at $1.78 a gallon and heating oil held at $1.70. Natural gas for August delivery rose 5.6 cents to $3.67 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices slid 30 cents to $66.33 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

[Associated Press; By ALEX KENNEDY]

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