Oil Prices Eased Awaiting Jobs Data

Oil prices were nearly flat in Asian trading Friday as market participants looked for trading cues from U.S. jobs data due later in the day.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery dropped 6 cents to $61.71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mid-afternoon in Singapore.

London's Brent crude for April delivery fell 3 cents to $62.30 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Exchange.

The energy market was quiet as traders waited ahead of the weekend and the release of employment data by the U.S. Labor Department, analysts said.