Crude oil Future Climbed after Labor Department Statement

Crude oil futures climbed Friday to settle at a high two years after the Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs last month.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by a larger than expected 151,000 in October, the first gain since May, according to the Labor Department. But the addition was not enough to reduce unemployment, which remained at 9.6% move.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery settled 36 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 86.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since October 2008. Brent crude on the ICE Futures Exchange recently 12 cents, or 0.1%, gained $ 88.12.

Oil prices are heavily influenced by employment data, as rising employment, demand for gasoline increased by increasing the number of commuters on the road.

Crude settled higher every day this week, finishing up 6.7%. The Federal Reserve has announced $ 600 billion in the financial markets pump in the coming eight months is a key driver of oil prices, as traders took positions for the announcement Wednesday and continued to respond to the decision by the week.

The Fed move, called quantitative easing, the dollar weakened, because it would increase the money supply. A weaker U.S. dollar, in turn, lifts the raw material cheaper in foreign currencies.

However, the dollar bounced back some ground Friday. The ICE Dollar Index, which the U.S. dollar against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, rose to 76.519 from 75.882 earlier.

That uptick helped to keep crude?s gains Friday on a short leash, even pushing commodity prices lower briefly during intraday trading, said Peter Donovan, vice president at Vantage Trading in New York.

?It?s hard to keep the momentum week after such a huge, huge move? this week, Donovan said.

The dollar had weakened since late August, when the Fed first chance that it might inject money into the economy for the second fold. On Thursday, the dollar hit a 10-month low against the euro, although the European currency edges higher to $ 1.4048 Friday.

Strengthening global demand for oil is also helping to raise the prices, ?said Costanza Jacazio, an oil analyst at Barclays Capital. She said the investment bank predicted that 2010 would be the second biggest increase in global oil demand in 30 years to see.

?You generally have a healthier economic picture over the world, and you notice that the quantitative easing that helped lift market sentiment,? said Jacazio.

?We see this $ 80-to-$ 90 (crude) range as fundamentally justified,? she said.

Morgan Stanley analyst Hussein Allidina predicted oil prices would average $ 100 per barrel in 2011 in a recent report, saying economic trends are in favor of higher commodity prices.

Front-month December reformulated gasoline or RBOB Blend Stock gained 0.29 cents, or 0.1%, to $ 2.1800 a gallon. December heating oil settled 1.17 cents, or 0.5%, to $ 2.3848 a gallon.