By Eric Yep 
 

Crude-oil futures were largely in negative territory in Asian trade Friday, but recouped some losses after Chinese manufacturing picked up in July.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at $98.02 a barrel at 0525 GMT, down $0.15 in the Globex electronic session. September Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.03 to $105.99 a barrel.

Global oil benchmarks fell overnight, ending July on a gloomy note. Nymex crude lost 6.83% in July, snapping a two-month winning streak and posting its largest one-month percentage decline since May 2012. It lost 3.84% over the last four sessions alone.

Brent crude fell 5.64% in July, snapping a three-month winning streak and posting its largest one-month percentage decline since April 2013. It has been down for three of the past four trading sessions.

A sharper drop in Nymex crude overnight helped bring back the Brent-WTI spread into the $7-$10 range, which Citi Futures analyst Tim Evans said helps equalize the two markets. The Brent-WTI spread is currently around $8 a barrel.

Meanwhile, two gauges of manufacturing activity in China picked up in July. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 51.7 in July from 51 in June, a 27-month high. The HSBC PMI rose to an 18-month high of 51.7 in July compared with 50.7 in June.

The readings suggest that "economic activity is still being supported by healthy foreign demand, along with state-led infrastructure investment and other targeted stimulus measures," Capital Economics economist Julian Evans-Pritchard said.

Financial markets are eyeing Friday's U.S. employment report, but weak demand and geopolitical turmoil are likely to continue affecting sentiment in oil markets.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for September--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 51 points to $2.7924 a gallon, while September heating oil traded at $2.8934, 35 points higher.

ICE gasoil for August changed hands at $888.25 a metric ton, up $1.25 from Thursday's settlement.

Write to Eric Yep at eric.yep@wsj.com