NEW YORK (AFP) — Crude oil crossed 137 dollars a barrel Friday for the first time in New York and London trade, jumping more than nine dollars as the market reacted to a sharp decline in the dollar.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, touched an all-time high of 137.70 dollars a barrel, up 9.91 dollars from Thursday's close.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for July jumped 9.81 dollars to strike a record high 137.35 dollars a barrel
Both futures contracts had far exceeded their prior record highs set on May 22: 135.09 dollars in New York and 135.14 in London.
The contracts eased back after pushing to the new records.
Around 1735 GMT, the New York contract was up 8.68 dollars at 136.47 and Brent was showing a gain of 8.34 dollars at 135.88.
The dollar slumped after the Labor Department reported the US unemployment rate jumped unexpectedly by a half percentage point to 5.5 percent in May, the steepest increase in more than two decades.
The weakening dollar boosts oil prices because it makes crude relatively cheaper for buyers using other currencies, analysts said.
The US economy shed 49,000 jobs in May, almost twice the number of the prior month, marking the fifth monthly consecutive decline, the Labor Department data showed.
Crude oil had soared more than five dollars on Thursday as the market rebounded strongly from losses earlier this week.
Oil prices rallied Friday, "extending gains from the day before on heavy losses in the dollar," said analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov at the Sucden brokerage in London.
"It seems that many investors used the latest sell-off in the dollar as an excuse to get back into the market after a bout of profit taking."
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