oil eases But holds Above 70 dollars

Updated at: 0847 PST, Monday, August 10, 2009 SINGAPORE: Oil was down in Asian trade Monday after the dollar strengthened on the back of better than expected US unemployment data. In morning trade, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September, fell 39 cents to 70.54 dollars a barrel. It shed 1.01 dollars to settle at 70.93 dollars in New York trade Friday. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September dipped 29 cents to 73.30 dollars. The US Labor Department said Friday that the US jobless rate fell one tenth of a point to 9.4 percent in July as job losses narrowed to 247,000 from 443,000 in June.