By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Oil prices ended little changed on Monday, kicking June off with restrain after May’s runaway rally, as black rights protests roiled America amid U.S.-China tensions threatening to undo the trade deal between the world’s top two economies.
Limiting crude’s downside were reports that OPEC had moved a meeting scheduled for next week to this Thursday and that the Saudi-led cartel and its top ally Russia were close to a deal that the Wall Street Journal said would extend their collective production cuts through Sept. 1. OPEC and its allies agreed in April to cut 9.7 million barrels daily from global output and Reuters reported last week that nearly three-quarters of that compliance has been achieved.
Also providing support was data from energy intelligence firm Genscape suggesting that crude stockpiles fell by 2.1 million barrels last week at the Cushing, Okla. hub that stores oil delivered against expiring contracts of the U.S. West Texas Intermediate benchmark. Cushing inventories officially slid by 3.5 million barrels slid in the previous week, government data showed.
“The speculation over OPEC and Cushing is what’s holding the market up this morning in the face of the U.S. protests and China tensions,” John Kilduff, founding partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital, said.
New York-traded WTI settled down 5 cents at $35.44 per barrel as tens of thousands of people swarmed the streets on Saturday and Sunday to express their outrage and sorrow over the killing of George Floyd, a black man in police custody in Minneapolis.
The unrest, with reports of shootings, looting and vandalism in some cities, has confounded mayors and governors trying to fully reopen U.S. states and cities shut down over the past three months by the coronavirus pandemic.
Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for oil, rose by 48 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $38.32.
For May, WTI was up 81% while Brent rose 96%. Both benchmarks are still down more than 40% on the year, as crude markets struggle to regain the demand loss of up to 30% experienced during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.