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Oil Prices Lower as Trade War Concerns Weigh on Demand Outlook

Published 12/10/2019, 08:45 AM
Updated 12/10/2019, 08:46 AM
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

Investing.com - Oil prices were lower on Tuesday, down for a second day as concerns over the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war on the global demand outlook overshadowed an agreement by OPEC and associated producers last week to deepen production cuts.

Brent futures were down 31 cents, or 0.5%, at $63.94 per barrel by 08:43 AM ET (01:43 GMT).

West Texas Intermediate oil futures futures were 28 cents, or 0.5%, lower at $58.73 a barrel. The benchmarks fell 0.2% and 0.3% respectively on Monday.

"The euphoria (on output cuts) was short lived, with an unexpected fall in exports from China highlighting the impact of the trade conflict," said ANZ Bank in a note on Tuesday.

Data released on Sunday showed exports from China unexpectedly fell 1.1% in November.

The weak data came amid growing fears that there will be no trade deal between the U.S. and China to stop the latest round of U.S. tariffs against some $156 billion Chinese goods coming into force on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump does not want to implement the next round of tariffs, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Monday - but he wants "movement" from China to avoid them.

"With the swathe of new tariffs due to kick in on 15 December, the market is watching negotiations closely," said ANZ.

Analysts said that, though overshadowed for now, the move by 'OPEC+' - the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and associated producers including Russia - to deepen output cuts from 1.2 million barrels per day to 1.7 million bpd would continue to underpin oil prices.

But rising non-OPEC production threatens to counteract efforts to limit global crude supplies.

"Despite the voluntary restraint from OPEC, world oil markets remain well supplied ... with non-OPEC output expected to rise by well over 2 million bpd next year, with big increases in the U.S., Brazil, and Norway," said Henning Gloystein, director of global energy and natural resources at Eurasia Group in a note.

Meanwhile, energy traders were looking ahead to American Petroleum Institute data on U.S. oil supplies, due at 4:30 PM ET. Traders expect Wednesday’s government data to show a drop of 3.05 million barrels in crude stocks.

--Reuters contributed to this report

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