By Mari Iwata TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil futures briefly spiked into positive territory on fresh buying, after extending overnight declines in early Asian trading Thursday. But investors started booking profits once prices exceeded $77, with the downside momentum pulling contracts back into the red. Overall market sentiment remained mixed as a better outlook for the U.S. economy indicated in recent data offset dollar strength and a fall in U.S. oil demand reflected overnight in data issued by the Energy Information Administration, analysts said. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $76.88 a barrel at 0540 GMT, down $0.10 in the Globex electronic session after trading between $76.70 and $77.17. March Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.19 to $75.73 a barrel. "There are some bulls who thought today's crude prices were a good bargain," which explains the midday spike, said Rikio Ishikura, a trader with Tokyo-based broker Newedge Japan. However, "many traders want to wait and see U.S. jobs data due Friday" before making their next moves, which means "Asian traders won't be able to move until next week," said Shuji Sugata, an analyst with broker Mitsubishi Corporation Futures in Tokyo. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for March--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 12 points to $2.0374 a gallon, while March heating oil traded at $2.0200, 6 points higher. ICE gasoil for February changed hands at $613.25 a metric ton, down $4.00 from Wednesday's settlement.

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