Investing.com - Crude oil prices held gains in Asia as China's trade balance surplus widened, though imports showed a sharp overall decline for the world's second largest importer.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.29% to $41.92 a barrel. on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for October delivery rose 0.16% to $44.34 a barrel.
China said trade balance for July came in at a surplus of $52.31 billion, better than $47.6 billion expected, with exports down 4.4%, below the 3.0% fall seen and imports showing a 12.5% decline, far worse than the down 7.0% seen, both year-on-year.
Earlier in Japan, the adjusted current account came in at ¥1.65 trillion, well below the surplus of ¥3.20 trillion for July expected. Bank lending rose 2.1%, beating the expected 2.0% gain. In China, FX reserves came in at CNY3.2 trillion, meeting expectations.
Weekly reports on U.S. stockpile data on Tuesday and Wednesday will be watched for fresh supply-and-demand signals as well as monthly reports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties and the International Energy Agency to gauge global supply and demand levels.
Last week, crude oil futures ended Friday’s session slightly lower, as the U.S. dollar spiked following the release of upbeat U.S. employment data and after a report showed the number of U.S. oil rigs rose for a sixth straight week.
But prices still ended the week with modest gains as technical short-covering and bargain-hunting returned to support the market.
Oil futures initially jumped higher after data showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased more than expected in July, boosting optimism over the health of the world's largest economy.
But prices started moving lower as the upbeat jobs report lifted the U.S. dollar to one-week highs against most of its major counterparts. Oil prices typically weaken when the U.S. currency strengthens as the dollar-priced commodity becomes more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Crude stayed lower after oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said late Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week increased by seven to 381, the sixth consecutive weekly rise and the ninth increase in 10 weeks.