Investing.com – Crude oil futures extended losses on Monday, as a broadly stronger U.S. dollar and growing fears over the debt crisis in the U.S. and the euro zone pressured prices lower.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at USD96.36 a barrel during U.S. morning trade, tumbling 1.4%.
It earlier fell as much as 1.6% to trade at a daily low of USD96.22 a barrel.
A broadly stronger U.S. dollar weighed on crude prices as the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies climbed 0.47% to trade at 75.76.
U.S. President Barack Obama said over the weekend that the U.S. government was “running out of time” in regards to negotiations over lifting the country’s USD14.3 trillion debt ceiling before an August 2 deadline.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said that a U.S. debt default would cause panic throughout the financial system and long-term uncertainty.
Ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s both warned last week that a failure to raise the debt limit in time would result in a downgrade in the credit rating of the world’s largest oil consumer.
Meanwhile, in the euro zone, Spanish government bond yields rose to a euro-lifetime high of 6.31%, approaching the 7% mark that prompted peripheral euro zone nations, Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts.
Yields on Italian bonds also climbed to a record high of 6.02%, while yields on two-year Greek debt soared to a euro-era record of 34.37%.
Finance ministers from the single currency bloc were to meet Thursday to focus on “the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and the future financing of the Greek program,” according to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for September delivery dropped 1.2% to trade at USD116.25 a barrel, up USD19.89 on its U.S. counterpart.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at USD96.36 a barrel during U.S. morning trade, tumbling 1.4%.
It earlier fell as much as 1.6% to trade at a daily low of USD96.22 a barrel.
A broadly stronger U.S. dollar weighed on crude prices as the dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies climbed 0.47% to trade at 75.76.
U.S. President Barack Obama said over the weekend that the U.S. government was “running out of time” in regards to negotiations over lifting the country’s USD14.3 trillion debt ceiling before an August 2 deadline.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said that a U.S. debt default would cause panic throughout the financial system and long-term uncertainty.
Ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s both warned last week that a failure to raise the debt limit in time would result in a downgrade in the credit rating of the world’s largest oil consumer.
Meanwhile, in the euro zone, Spanish government bond yields rose to a euro-lifetime high of 6.31%, approaching the 7% mark that prompted peripheral euro zone nations, Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts.
Yields on Italian bonds also climbed to a record high of 6.02%, while yields on two-year Greek debt soared to a euro-era record of 34.37%.
Finance ministers from the single currency bloc were to meet Thursday to focus on “the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and the future financing of the Greek program,” according to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for September delivery dropped 1.2% to trade at USD116.25 a barrel, up USD19.89 on its U.S. counterpart.