* U.S. unemployment data shows 663,000 jobs lost in March
* Limited risk appetite seen returning
* Oil keeps down slightly after Thursday's 9 pct surge
(Updates prices, adds comment)
By Chris Baldwin
LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - Oil slipped under $52 a barrel
on Friday after surging by nearly 9 percent the day before, as
global markets viewed the outcome of the G20 summit as paving
the way for some risk appetite to return.
Oil moved down by around 1.44 percent after data came out
showing U.S. employers slashed 663,000 jobs in March, lifting
the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the highest since 1983.
"The jobs report was apparently priced in and was pretty
much in line with expectations," said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice
president at MF Global in New York.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast non-farm payrolls
falling 650,000 in March. The Labor Department also revised its
January data to show job losses of 741,000 that month.
U.S. light crude for May delivery <CLc1> fell 66 cents to
$51.98 a barrel by 1330 GMT, down from Thursday's $4.25 gain
that lifted the contract to $52.64.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 30 cents to $51.45.
WHERE NOW?
Oil made its largest one-day percentage gain in three weeks
on Thursday as markets rallied after world leaders at the summit
announced a trillion-dollar deal to act on the economic crisis.
Some market watchers said recent price rises in the crude
market, in spite of low demand and heavy supply, were likely to
be a sign investors were turning to investments seen as
involving more risk, which can include oil.
"The last two weeks has been fairly encouraging," said David
Dugdale, a London-based energy analyst at MFC Global Investment
Management.
"(U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner's procedures for
quantitative easing and yesterday's G20 seem to have provided
enough for the bulls to now move into risk assets."
Analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a note to investors that
recent OPEC production cuts seem to have tightened supply, and a
build in U.S. crude oil in the last three weeks was an
"inventory head fake" -- a false signal of direction.
"If there was truly a significant global surplus, you would
not only expect crude oil stocks to be building onshore, but you
would also expect the contango on global benchmarks to be
widening."
Contango is a market term meaning prices for future delivery
are above current levels. When there is a wide contango it pays
for some investors to store oil on ships to sell at a later
date.
In the past month the spread for Brent futures <BFO-> has
narrowed from $1.44 on March 3 to around $1.23 on Friday,
according to Reuters data.
"The tightening of spreads had meant that the floating
storage play is no longer as profitable as it once was," J.P.
Morgan analysts wrote.
In January, oil majors, traders and OPEC producers were
thought to be storing 60-70 million barrels of oil at sea,
mostly in the U.S. Gulf, with Norway's Frontline estimating the
armada of tankers holding up to 80 million barrels.
U.S. factory orders rose in February for the first time in
seven months, and a rebound in China's official purchasing
managers' index (PMI) in March showed the Chinese economy may
have bottomed, China's chief statistics official said on Friday.
European shares rose in afternoon trade on Friday after the
jobless numbers released were in line with forecasts. []
The dollar reversed earlier losses and rose to a session
peak against the euro on Friday as the U.S. jobs data dulled
market optimism and enhanced the dollar's safe haven
status.[]
(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons in New York and Fayen
Wong in Perth; editing by James Jukwey)
