Oil prices fall as U.S. trade dispute with China looms
Brent and WTI crude oil futures dipped on Monday as concerns of a looming trade dispute between the United States and China weighed on global markets.
In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures debuted strongly, both in terms of volume and prices, with front-month contracts soaring as much as 6 percent ISCc1 as investors bought into the world’s newest financial oil trading instrument, Reuters reports.
Looming over oil markets, however, was the possibility of a full-blown trade war between the United States and China battered Asian shares CSI300 .N225 on Monday. The falls came after U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.
This weighed on crude oil futures as well. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $65.49 a barrel at 0543 GMT, down 39 cents, or 0.6 percent, from their previous close.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $70.18 per barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.4 percent.
Crude was also weighed by a rise in the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil to a three-year high of 804, implying further rises in production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has already jumped by a quarter since mid-2016 to 10.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
News.Az
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