Oil steady above $68, US jobs data awaited

Oil ticked up above $68 a barrel on Friday in relatively thin dealing as investors awaited jobs data from the United States to provide some insight into the health of the world's top economy.

By 0825 GMT, U.S. crude <CLc1> was up 40 cents at $68.36 a barrel. London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 28 cents to $67.40.

"We are seeing directionless trading today ahead of the U.S. employment report," said Tony Nunan, risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp. in Tokyo.

"The big issue is that a lot of the economic indicators have shown improvement, except for the employment numbers, and high unemployment figures are bad for overall oil demand."

The U.S. Labor Department will release the August non-farm payrolls report at 1230 GMT. Economists polled by Reuters forecast 225,000 jobs were lost last month, the least amount in a year. [ID:nN01485399]

Other markets also moved cautiously in a relatively narrow range ahead of the jobs data. Equity markets mostly edged higher while the dollar dipped against the yen. [ID:nL4356490]

Recent data has given mixed signals on the health of the U.S. economy. [ID:nN0391201]

HIGH INVENTOREIS, OPEC

Oil prices have traded in a small price range between about $67 and $69.40 a barrel for three days and high levels of oil inventories have pushed them down by about 6 percent from the end of last week.

If prices fall by that much for the week by the close on Friday, it would mark its biggest weekly decline in eight weeks.

The high oil inventory levels in many key consuming countries, such as the United States and China, have been a concern for OPEC, which meets next week in Vienna to discuss its output policy.

Most analysts expect the producer group, the source of more than a third of the world's oil supply, will agree to maintain its official output target unchanged to keep prices stable around $70 and to help the world economy remain on a recovery path.