Crude fell to the lowest level in almost eight months as worsening employment rates in the U.S. and the euro area signaled fuel demand may tumble. Oil dropped as much as 4.6 percent after the Labor Department said American employers added the smallest number of workers in a year in May. The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the euro reached the highest level on record, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg reported.
“You need a word stronger than terrible for the jobs report,” said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc. in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “Everything is driven by the lousy economic data.” Crude futures for July delivery declined $2.33, or 2.7 percent, to $84.20 a barrel at 9:39 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $82.56, the lowest intraday level since Oct. 7. Prices are down 23 percent from this year’s settlement high of $109.77 on Feb. 24.
Brent for July settlement tumbled $2.15, or 2.1 percent, to $99.72 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, falling below $100 for the first time since October.
U.S. payrolls climbed by 69,000, less than the most pessimistic estimate in a Bloomberg survey in which responses ranged from increases of 75,000 to 195,000. The jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent. It was forecast to hold at 8.1 percent.
Unemployment has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest such stretch since monthly records began in 1948.....Read the entire Bloomberg article.
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