Oil Flat on Monday Trading

Oil prices were flat on Monday but remained on an unstable footing as increases in U.S. drilling activity undercut an OPEC-led push to tighten supply.

Trading was subdued due to public holidays in China, the United States and Britain, but the market remains unsettled because of uncertainty over whether the impact of OPEC’s latest action to curb oversupply would be enough to support prices.

Brent crude futures were trading 5 cents higher at $52.20 per barrel at 1311 GMT. The contract ended the previous week down nearly 3 percent.



U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were 4 cents higher at $49.84 per barrel.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-OPEC producers pledged last week to extend production cuts of around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018.

An initial agreement, in place since January, would have expired in June this year.

Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch called Monday’s price moves little more than “intraday noise” but said hints of deeper cuts or a longer extension from OPEC left the market deflated after the final decision.

“They increased expectations to such an extent that nine months was a disappointment,” Fritsch said.

via SOURCE

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza