Crude oil is little changed on Monday as traders wait for key manufacturing data from the U.S., U.K. and the eurozone. China’s soft manufacturing activity and OPEC’s decision to leave its production target unchanged is weighing on prices.
The outlook for global economic growth was clouded by the Chinese data. Manufacturing activity in the world’s second largest economy and a key consumer for oil fell to 49.2 in May, shrinking for the first time in 7 months as both domestic and external demand dropped.
This data darkened the outlook for global recovery even more after Friday’s data showed record-high European unemployment and a decline in U.S. consumer spending in April, which dented energy-demand prospects.
Meanwhile, OPEC, which pumps a third of the world`s oil, left Friday the output target unchanged at 30 million barrels a day for the rest of the year, expressing satisfaction with current price levels and concerns regarding the weak global economic growth.
“The market remains biased to further downside. We may see seasonal pick-up in demand, but if you look at the overall annual demand, there is more than enough supply to meet that”, said Ric Spooner from CMC Markets in Sydney.
Markets will focus later in the day on May’s manufacturing activity from the eurozone, U.K. and the U.S. for clues on the health of the global economy and what it may mean for oil demand. The ECB and BoE will release their rate decisions ater this week .
The outlook for global economic growth was clouded by the Chinese data. Manufacturing activity in the world’s second largest economy and a key consumer for oil fell to 49.2 in May, shrinking for the first time in 7 months as both domestic and external demand dropped.
This data darkened the outlook for global recovery even more after Friday’s data showed record-high European unemployment and a decline in U.S. consumer spending in April, which dented energy-demand prospects.
- Crude is trading as of this writing around $91.83 a barrel, with the highest at $91.94 and the lowest at $91.27
- Brent is trading around $100.34 a barrel at the time of writing after falling 0.05% or $0.05
Meanwhile, OPEC, which pumps a third of the world`s oil, left Friday the output target unchanged at 30 million barrels a day for the rest of the year, expressing satisfaction with current price levels and concerns regarding the weak global economic growth.
“The market remains biased to further downside. We may see seasonal pick-up in demand, but if you look at the overall annual demand, there is more than enough supply to meet that”, said Ric Spooner from CMC Markets in Sydney.
Markets will focus later in the day on May’s manufacturing activity from the eurozone, U.K. and the U.S. for clues on the health of the global economy and what it may mean for oil demand. The ECB and BoE will release their rate decisions ater this week .
- Natural gas is trading at $3.968 per cubic feet after falling 0.40%
- Gasoline is trading at $2.747 a gallon after falling 0.29%
- Heating oil is trading at $2.7805 a gallon after falling 0.03%