(RTTNews) - Crude oil dropped on Friday morning as discouraging jobs data raised energy demand concerns. Prices are down for a second straight day to pull further below $80.
Light sweet crude for December moved to $78.30, down $1.32 on the session. Prices hit as low as $77.30 after earlier touching as high as $80.34.
The Labor Department reported the unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent in October from an unrevised 9.8 percent in September. The number had been expected to see a more modest increase to 9.9 percent.
The report showed non-farm payroll employment fell by 190,000 jobs in October following a revised decrease of 219,000 jobs in September. Economists had expected a decrease of about 175,000 jobs compared to the loss of 263,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Later in the morning, a Commerce Department report showed that wholesale inventories fell 0.9 percent in September following an unrevised 1.3 percent decrease in August. Economists had been expecting inventories to decrease by about 1.0 percent.
With the drop, oil gave more of the gains seen earlier this week after Energy Information Administration data showed crude oil inventories decreased by 4.0 million barrels compared to the previous week. Experts had forecast an increase of 1.3 million barrels.
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