NEW YORK?Oil prices drifted higher Monday on expectations that the Federal Reserve may take steps to prevent the US economic recovery from stalling.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, gained 78 cents to $81.48 a barrel.

London's Brent North Sea crude for September advanced 83 cents to $80.99.

Prices retreated on Friday after the government reported steeper-than-expected job losses that raised the specter of the US recovery stalling.

Investors looked ahead to Tuesday's meeting of the Federal Reserve's policymakers amid speculation that fresh steps could be taken by the central bank to fuel economic growth.

Growth has eased since the economy emerged in the middle of last year from a brutal recession.

Some analysts said the movement of the oil market were tied to the equity market, which has been mostly higher.

"Correlation between oil price and equities remains high as the latter has been treated as a barometer of economic prospects, a relationship that has persisted since the market bottoms in early 2009," said MF Global analyst Mike Fitzpatrick.

He said last week's market volatility would probably continue "as every bit of economic data appears to have an outsize influence on the pendulum that swings between skepticism and hope on whether or not a viable, sustainable recovery is in fact underway.

Recent gains in US Treasury bonds have been fueled in part by an expectation that the Fed will announce new stimulus measures but some analysts do not expect any major changes.

"We think the Fed will be content to watch incoming data a bit longer before taking any concrete steps on a quantitative easing path," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.