Crude oil prices fall 2 percent

Oil dropped nearly 2 percent Friday as investors shrugged off U.S. job gains and focused on lingering concerns about the global economy

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Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery fell $1.70 to $84.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude oil prices pulled back from an early surge. A government report on Friday morning showed employers added 117,000 jobs in July. Unemployment fell slightly, to 9.1 percent. The news helped push crude as high as $88.32 before it tapped off.

Investors are still rattled by the stock market’s plunge on Thursday, when the Dow Jones industrial average fell 513 points, or more than 4 percent, to its worse decline since the 2008 financial crisis. Oil dropped by an even greater amount, losing nearly 6 percent, to a six month low on Thursday.

Investors focused on Europe’s debt struggles and the fear of another recession. Italy and Spain face enormous debts while Germany said its industrial production declined 1.1 percent in June. The U.S. also plans to cut spending by $2.4 trillion over the next decade.