Crude Oil at $82;Recovery eyed

Oil prices rebounded above $ 82 today as the market got a boost from better-than-expected US jobs data, traders said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, jumped to a high of $ 82.07 a barrel. It later stood at $ 81.86, up $ 1.65 from yesterday's close.

London's Brent North Sea crude for April was up $ 1.79 at $ 80.33, after earlier touching $ 80.53.

The United States lost 36,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate held at 9.7%, the US government said Friday in an upbeat release.

The report was better than expected by most economists who had forecast 67,000 non-farm job losses and a 9.8 percent unemployment rate.

"It was the latest US unemployment numbers that really set the markets in motion," said analyst David Jones at financial spread-betting firm IG Index.

"US non-farm payrolls are always a key economic announcement, especially at the moment as traders look for signs of continued economic recovery.

"Although today's figures showed that the US economy lost 36,000 jobs in February, this was not as bad as the market was expecting."

The numbers boosted oil prices because the United States is the world's biggest energy consuming nation.