Oil Futures Retreat After Payrolls Surge

Oil futures slipped in Asian trading hours on Monday, as investors paused after pushing the commodity to sharp gains at the end of last week following the release of U.S. jobs data.

Crude for September delivery CLU2 -0.74% retreated 10 cents to $91.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil soared on Friday, with the contract ending the New York session up $4.27, or 4.9%, at $91.40 a barrel — its highest settlement price for two weeks.

The gains followed data that showed the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in July, with the pace of growth the fastest since February. Read more on payrolls data.

The dollar lost ground after the data, a move that often helps commodity futures priced in dollars. The dollar index DXY +0.29% reached 82.331 in Asian trading hours on Monday, down from 82.359 on Friday, but near levels seen late Thursday.

September natural-gas futures NGU12 -2.36% lost 5 cents to trade at $2.82 per million British thermal units.

September gasoline RBU2 -0.70% slipped 1 cent to $2.92 a gallon, while heating oil HOU2 -0.40% futures for delivery in the same month also lost 1 cent to trade at $2.92 a gallon.

Marketwatch