Oil plunged to
fresh eight-month low near $82 a barrel on Monday in Asia as a
dismal US jobs report sparked selling of stocks and commodities.
The Labor Department said on Friday that
employers in the US added just 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year and well below what economists expected. The unemployment rate rose for the first time since last June, up to 8.2 per cent from 8.1 per cent.
Benchmark oil for July delivery was down $1.09 to $82.14 per barrel, the lowest since October, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.30 to settle at $83.23 in New York on Friday.
In London, Brent crude for July delivery was down $1.07 at $97.36 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
"Friday's employment report was so mind-numbingly bad," energy trader and consultant The Schork Group said in a report.
It was the third month in a row of disappointing US job growth, suggesting the economy is slowing and oil demand will likely grow less than expected this year.
Crude has plummeted 23 per cent in the last month amid signs of weak global economic growth. As Europe struggles to contain its debt crisis, signs of sputtering Chinese growth have coupled with a faltering US recovery to undermine investor confidence.
Oil traders often look to global stock markets as a barometer of overall investor sentiment, and Asian equities were sharply lower on Monday after the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.2 per cent on Friday.
In other energy trading, heating oil was down 1.4 cents at $2.61 per gallon while gasoline futures fell 2.2 cents at $2.63 per gallon. Natural gas gained 1.6 cents at $2.34 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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