Oil prices slipped with Brent, and US marker West Texas Intermediate both 1 per cent lower at $42.72 and $40.24 per barrel, respectively.

Traders put weakness in crude markets down to US states reintroducing lockdown measures.

They blamed demand being hit ahead of the important July 4 holiday.

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6.36am update: Asian shares hit four-month high as China recovery gathers pace

Asian shares rallied to a four-month high on Friday on robust US payrolls data and a brisk pickup in Chinese service sector activity but a surge in coronavirus cases in the United States kept a lid on further risk-taking.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent, reaching their highest level since late February, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.4 percent.

Mainland Chinese shares, which were among the best performers over the past month, extended gains, with the Shanghai composite index hitting a high last seen in April 2019.

China’s services sector expanded at the fastest pace in over a decade in June, the Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed, as the easing of coronavirus-related lockdown measures revised consumer demand.