Crude oil futures up as investors await jobs data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil futures traded higher in thin Asian trade on Friday, after setting multi-month lows in the previous session, with investors awaiting U.S. jobs numbers later in the day and Chinese trade data over the weekend.

Despite the gains both of the main oil benchmarks are heading for declines of nearly 5 percent this week, holding to the longest string of weekly losses since the turn of the year.

U.S. jobs data on Friday may give a strong pointer on when the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly 10 years. The Fed meets in mid-September and markets are split between a hike next month or a delay until December.

The jobs number will likely impact the dollar which in turn will affect oil, said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.

"There's also China's trade data on the weekend, which is an increasingly important number for the markets," he said. "I think what happens there will set the near term direction."

Besides global oversupply, the other primary factor pushing down crude prices from this year's peaks in May has been worry about the state of China's oil demand as its economy slows.

U.S. crude was 23 cents higher at $44.89 a barrel at 0425 GMT, after dropping more than 1 percent on Thursday when it hit a 4-1/2 month low.

The contract is heading for a sixth week of decline, the most it has fallen in a row since dropping for seven weeks between November and January. It is down 4.7 percent this week, the biggest weekly loss in two.

Brent , the global oil benchmark, was trading 24 cents higher at $49.76, after reaching a six-month low in the previous session.

The European crude is also down about 4.7 percent this week, the biggest weekly fall since March. It is heading for a sixth week of declines, the longest streak since the turn of the year when the market was in freefall.

Crude futures are a few dollars away from breaking 2015 lows. Brent's bottom for the year so far is $45.19, hit in January, while U.S. crude fell as low as $42.03 in March.

"As far as the bigger picture is concerned, it is just a relentless grind lower at the moment," Spooner said.

(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Michael Perry and Tom Hogue)