Light crude oil price drops $2 in Friday trading on US jobs data

Light crude oil price drops $2 a barrel in Friday trading as US jobs data showed the the amount of Americans out of work climbed 190,000 in the last month, which was over the estimated 170,000 by forecasters. The total number of unemployed US people rose by 558,000 to 15.7 million.

US Light crude oil prices are currently trading in the mid $77 dollars per barrel on the NYMEX.

But there was some better news with the revision of September’s figure from a loss of 263,000 jobs to a loss of 219,000 jobs. The figures were particularly poor given Thursday’s news of a fall in initial weekly jobless claims and the data earlier in the week that showed the US economy had grown by 3.5% between July and September.

“It’s pretty disappointing overall,” said Richard Franulovich, senior currency strategist at Westpac in New York. “Job losses are not moderating as quickly as I had hoped despite those earlier indicators on jobs.”

The dollar fell against both the euro and the yen following the release of the figures.

Tags:  light oil prices, US jobs