* Brent crude hits fresh 2-yr high, Europe freezes
* Coming Up: U.S. Non-farm payrolls Nov; 1330 GMT
* JP Morgan, Goldman see oil to average above $100 in 2011
(Update prices, adds JP Morgan)
By Ikuko Kurahone
LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Oil inched up on Friday ahead of
the release of closely watched U.S. jobs data, while North Sea
Brent crude futures hit a fresh two-year high above $91 due to
the extreme cold weather covering much of Europe.
The recent gains to the peaks have prompted major banks, JP
Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, to place their long-term oil
prices forecasts above $100 this week.
U.S. crude futures for January <CLc1> rose 17 cents to
$88.17 a barrel by 1204 GMT, after hitting the highest
settlement price of $88.00 at Thursday's close.
ICE Brent crude futures <LCOc1> rose 32 cents to $91.01 a
barrel, after briefly touching a fresh two-year high of $91.13
earlier on Friday.
Global markets were mostly steady ahead of the U.S. Labor
Department releasing its monthly report on jobs at 1330 GMT.
Investors tend to avoid taking big positions ahead of closely
watched data releases.
Nonfarm payrolls are forecast to have risen 140,000, with
private hiring increasing by more than 100,000 for a fifth
straight month in November, according to a Reuters survey.
The unemployment rate is forecast to have held steady at 9.6
percent. []
"In the United States, (recent) economic data has remained
healthy. The development would be the one aiming at $90 (a
barrel), if (further) improvement is confirmed in the jobs data
due out later today," Mizuho Corporate Bank said in its daily
commodities research note, referring to U.S. crude.
U.S. crude has risen about 5 percent so far this week,
following a slew of upbeat U.S. and Chinese economic data that
boded well for demand from the world's top two energy consumers.
Jobs, home sales and retail sales data from the U.S. on
Thursday pointed to a sustained economic recovery, while
statistics earlier this week showed factory activity in China
reached a seven-month high.
However, there have been signs that China may tighten its
monetary policy further. Any slowdown to its economy may dent
its immediate energy demand and cap any gains in oil prices.
China will switch to a prudent monetary policy from a
moderately loose stance, the Communist Party's top leaders
decided on Friday, a change that could pave the way for more
interest rate increases and lending controls, the state Xinhua
news agency reported. []
ARCTIC WEATHER
Mizuho Corporate Bank also pointed out that oil, as an asset
class, had been supported by the European Central Bank's
commitment to extend its safety net to support vulnerable euro
zone banks, maintaining financial market liquidity.
North Sea benchmark ICE Brent crude has risen more sharply,
gaining about 5.8 percent so far this week, due partly to the
Arctic weather freezing most parts of Europe and boosting energy
demand in the short term. []
The price structure of Brent futures has flipped into
backwardation, or premiums on the prompt contract to
longer-dated, which reflects the tightening of the immediate
fundamentals.
The opposite structure is contango.
"The cold is definitely affecting oil - see Brent is in
backwardation, while U.S. crude is still in contango," Thorbj
