Brent crude oil trading around the $67 to $68 range Friday

In London, Brent crude fell $1.88 to $67.31 on the ICE Futures exchange, crude oil prices have hovered around the $65 to $70 for months amid mixed signals about the strength of the US economic recovery. On Thursday, poor economic data sparked a sell-off in US stock markets, which continued Friday as the US Labor Department released worse than expected jobless figures.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut far more jobs than predicted — a net total of 263,000 jobs were lost last month, more than the 201,000 shed in August.

Economists had predicted losses of 180,000 jobs, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.1 percent Thursday and futures predicted a lower open on Friday as well. Most Asian markets closed lower Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 2.5 percent. Stocks were also lower in Europe, with London’s FTSE 100 losing 0.8 percent, Germany’s DAX down 1.9 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris off by 2.5 percent.

“At $70 a barrel, investors have priced in a fairly sharp economic recovery,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “That makes it vulnerable to bad economic news.”

Tags:  brent crude oil, ICE