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Brent crude futures fell 22 cents, or 0.26%, to $84.72 a barrel
by 1053 GMT. West Texas Intermediate U.S. crude was down 20
cents, or 0.25%, to $80.51 a barrel.
U.S. job openings in February dropped to the lowest level in
nearly two years, suggesting that the labour market was cooling.
"(The data) could be the first signs of weakness in the U.S.
labour market and that is huge. Without it, (the U.S. Federal
Reserve) will find it very hard to make the argument that it is
pausing the tightening cycle," said Craig Erlam, senior markets
analyst at OANDA.
Traders will be looking for cues on broader economic trends from
U.S. non-farm payrolls data due this week, as weak economic data
from the U.S. and China raise demand fears.
"The present raises concerns about healthy economic expansion as
Chinese, euro zone and U.S. manufacturing activity slowed last
month," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.
Record Russian diesel flows to the Middle East in March, and the
sluggish performance of middle distillates contracts have "acted
as a brake on any attempt to push crude oil prices meaningfully
higher", Varga said.
Markets saw some support, however, from an industry report
showing U.S. crude inventories fell by about 4.3 million barrels
in the week ended March 31.
The official inventory report by the U.S. Energy Information
Administration is due at 1430 GMT on Wednesday.
Bullish sentiment continued after voluntary cuts pledged by
OPEC+ which groups Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries members and allies including Russia.
"Energy traders are still digesting the OPEC+ surprise
production cut and any news that suggests the oil market will
remain even tighter is going to send prices even higher," said
Edward Moya, an analyst at OANDA.
(Reporting Sudarshan Varadhan in Singapore, by Laila Kearney in
New York; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)
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