Prices for refined product and crude oil futures were falling Friday morning, with contracts on track for sharp week-to-week losses.
The losses come following a weaker-than-anticipated jobs report and ongoing concerns about faltering energy demand in the coming months.
Crude oil prices were down by less than 50cts at 11:15 a.m. ET, with the June contract for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude falling 42cts to $78.53/bbl while the July contract dropped 37cts to $78.11/bbl.
The July contract for European benchmark Brent crude was moving 36cts lower to $83.31/bbl while August prices fell 30cts to $82.73/bbl. Crude oil prices are currently about 6% lower than last Friday's settlement.
Gasoline futures were seeing the steepest losses of the day, with the June RBOB contract down 2.95cts to $2.5670/gal. July prices were 2.78cts in the red to $2.5340/gal.
Diesel losses were less than a cent per gallon heading into the afternoon, with the front-month contract 0.41ct lower to $2.4390/gal while July prices shed 0.49ct to $2.4527/gal.
Gasoline futures are seeing week-on-week losses of 6.4% while diesel futures are down 4.75% on the week.
On Friday, the Labor Department reported U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 175,000 in April, about 27% fewer jobs than were anticipated.
Cash prices for gasoline and diesel were largely following the futures' moves, though losses for Los Angeles CARBOB were outpacing those on the NYMEX screen by about 1ct/gal.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Rachel Stroud-Goodrich, rstroud-goodrich@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-03-24 1211ET
