West Texas Intermediate crude headed for the biggest weekly drop in six months as U.S. employers hired less than half the number of workers forecast in March, raising concern that economic growth won’t be strong enough to support oil demand.

Prices tumbled for the fourth time in five days after the Labor Department said payrolls climbed by 88,000, the smallest gain in nine months. Economists had expected an advance of 190,000. U.S. inventories increased to a 22-year high in an April 3 Energy Information Administration report as oil production stayed near the most since 1992.

The unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of households, fell last month to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent in February, the Labor Department said. The figure, the lowest since December 2008, reflected a 496,000 decline in the size of the labor force. The labor force participation rate fell to 63.3 percent, the lowest since May 1979.

U.S. crude stockpiles expanded by 2.71 million barrels in the week ended March 29 to 388.6 million, the most since 1990, the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistical arm, said on April 3. Production was 7.15 million barrels a day.

WTI oil for May delivery dropped 92 cents, or 1 percent, to $92.34 a barrel at 11:46 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $91.91, the lowest intraday level since March 21. Prices are down 5 percent this week, heading for the biggest weekly loss since Sept. 21.

Brent crude for May settlement declined $1.68, or 1.6 percent, to $104.66 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Brent’s premium to WTI narrowed to as little as $12.09, the least since July. Brent has slumped 5.8 percent this year, while WTI is up 0.6 percent.

Gold broke off a three-day decline and showed growth after weak jobs report. Gold prices were lethargic in the first half of today's trading in anticipation of the report on employment in the United States, which gave a negative assessment of the world's largest economy.

Experts said that if the United States will report strong performance, investors will start to look towards the stock markets, which will be more attractive. However, the yield of weak statistics on the labor market has led to an outflow of funds from the stock market in favor of the purchase of precious metal.

As recent data that were released today by the Department of Labor, at the end of last month the number of people employed in non-agricultural area has increased, but it was well below expectations. According to a report on the results of March employers added only 88,000 jobs, compared with a revised upward from the previous month at 268 thousand In addition, it was announced that the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, reaching a level with 7.6% , compared to 7.7% in February. We add that, according to the average forecast of experts, employment would grow by 185 thousand and the unemployment rate to remain unchanged. Recall that according to the initial assessment, the February growth was 236 thousand

According to consulting firm GFMS, in 2014 after more than 10 years of growth in the gold market will decline due to reduced demand for jewelry, coins and bullion.

Cost June gold futures on the COMEX today rose to 1576.0 dollars per ounce.

Change % Change Last

GOLD 1,552.40 -1.10 -0.07%

OIL 93.26 -1.19 -1.26%