US crude front-month daily trade volume hits record

(Adds total NYMEX crude futures daily volume, settlement price for March crude, paragraphs 4-5)

NEW YORK Feb 5 (Reuters) - The daily volume of front-month crude oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit a record on Friday.

The surge came as prices fell after the dollar rose sharply and amid worries about the jobs market after a mixed government employment report.

Trading volume for the front-month contract, currently for March delivery CLHO, hit an estimated 540,000 positions as of 2:50 p.m. EST (1950 GMT), eclipsing the previous record of 527,000 hit on Dec. 9.

Daily trading volume for all NYMEX crude oil futures contracts hit a preliminary 1,007,414 positions, just below the 1,037,324 reached on Dec. 9. The record was 1,092,509 positions set on June 6, 2008.

March crude CLHO settled down $1.95, or 2.67 percent, at $71.19 a barrel.

NYMEX launched crude oil futures trading in March 1983. (Reporting by Gene Ramos)