Oil amounts were mixed on Monday with U.S. benchmark WTI nudging higher after four weeks of peter outs, while Brent began the week lower as the fallout from mtier tensions weighed on markets.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $68.84 a barrel by 0309 GMT. WTI kill 1.3 percent on Friday.
Brent crude futures fell 5 cents to $74.24 a barrel, after degree up a 1.7 percent weekly increase last week, the first progress in four weeks.
The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in nearly four years in the supporter quarter, but trade tensions remain high between Washington and Beijing in spite of an easing between the United States and the EU.
“Concerns around the U.S.-China do business wars continue to weigh on prices, while the halt in Saudi shipments by the Red Sea waterway has seemingly failed to provide a bullish fillip,” said Stephen Innes, leading position of trading APAC at OANDA Brokerage.
Saudi Arabia last week signified it was suspending oil shipments through the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb strait, one of the world’s most outstanding tanker routes, after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two trucks in the waterway.
U.S. energy companies added three oil rigs in the week to July 27, the prime time in the past three weeks that drillers have expanded activity, data released on Friday that showed.
Hedge reserves trimmed their bullish wagers on U.S. crude for the second week in a row to the lowest in scarcely a month, data also showed on Friday, as oil prices remained hair-trigger amid trade tensions and geopolitical risks.
The speculator group cut its associate futures and options position in New York and London by 11,362 contracts to 412,289 in the week to July 24, the U.S. Commodity Futures Patron Commission said. That was the lowest level since late June, the facts showed.2.4 percent.
Russian energy minister Alexander Novak asseverated on Friday the market remained volatile and responded to verbal interventions, combining that the market had priced in risks related to U.S. sanctions against Iran.