By V. Phani Kumar and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
MADRID (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures stumbled below $82 a barrel in electronic trading Monday, finding little respite as disappointing U.S. jobs data combined with worries over the euro-zone and slowing growth in China to sap investor confidence.
July futures for light, sweet crude-oil CLN2 +0.04% tumbled $1.35, or 1.6%, to $81.85 a barrel on Globex in European early afternoon hours Monday, extending its rapid decline from last week. Earlier in Tokyo trading hours, the price fell as low as $81.
The front-month contract lost $3.30 Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the May nonfarm payrolls report, to tally a weekly loss of 8.4%.
The U.S. dollar’s recovery from Friday’s retreat, hefty losses across Asian stock markets and the prospect of a further decline for U.S. equities ate into investor confidence.
Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.13% futures fell 26 points, or 0.2%, to 12,077, while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX +0.25% futures dropped 0.4 point to 1,273.50 in early afternoon European trading hours.
Asian stock markets were also awash with red ink, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HK:HSI -2.01% dropping 2.4% to erase all gains accumulated earlier in 2012, while the broader Topix Index JP:I0000 -1.89% in Tokyo slid 1.9% for its lowest finish in more than two decades. Read Asia Markets.
European markets were mixed with German stocks lower on downbeat global growth data, but banks rallying on hopes for a bailout plan in Europe, which lifted Spanish and Italian stocks.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.24% , which measures the greenback’s performance against six major global currencies, climbed to 82.802 from 82.878 in New York late on Friday. Read Currencies report.
The day’s losses also came after data pointed to weakness in China’s services sector. The nonmanufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for May dropped to 55.2 in May from 56.1 in April, marking its lowest reading since the seasonally-adjusted figures were introduced in 2011, according to China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Read full story.
Among other energy products, the July futures for gasoline RBN2 -0.26% dropped 1.5% to $2.62 per gallon and those for heating-oil HON2 -0.29% shed 1.5% to $2.59 per gallon.
Natural-gas futures for delivery in the same month NGN12 +2.71% , which tumbled 4% on Friday, rose 1.8%, or 4 cents, to $2.32 per million British thermal units.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch’s Hong Kong bureau.
Barbara Kollmeyer is an editor for MarketWatch in Madrid.
View original article: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-futures-slammed-again-drop-below-82-2012-06-04