London (Platts)--5Feb2010/652 am EST/1152 GMT

Global crude futures drifted lower in European morning trading Friday following Thursday's 5% plunge--the steepest one-day drop since July.

At 10:39 GMT, the March ICE Brent contract was trading 55 cents lower at $71.58/barrel and the NYMEX light sweet crude contract was 29 cents lower at $72.85/b.

The March NYMEX contract had settled $3.84 lower at $73.14/b Thursday, with disappointing US economic data and sovereign debt concerns sending equity markets plummeting and the US dollar soaring. Front-month Brent lost $3.79 on the day to settle at $72.13/b overnight.

"There was a big selloff [Thursday], it was primarily dollar related... the dollar is still very strong," a London-based broker said. Dollar strength persisted Friday morning with the euro further weakening to trade at $1.3679.

"All markets are drifting," the broker added.

Asian stock indexes plunged Friday, and markets across Europe all opened lower, with Spain and Portugal hardest hit. The UK's FTSE 100 stock index was trading 1.7% lower at 5,053.

The markets will look for direction from the US non-farm payroll figures due to be released later Friday, sources said.

Meanwhile, ongoing political uncertainty in Nigeria, where the peace deal in the oil-producing Delta region appears to be unraveling, will continue to be watched by the markets.

"We will now consider the main price upside potential to be in Nigeria as [President Umaru Yar'Adua] is still not back from [medical] treatment in Saudi Arabia and there is a growing agitation in Nigeria about transition of powers," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix said.

--Daniel Colover, daniel_colover@platts.com