Investing.com - Oil prices inched down on Monday in Asia despite positive trade news.
Chinese state media Xinhua reported that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He discussed a partial deal with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a phone call on the weekend.
The two sides had “constructive discussions” about “each other’s core concerns,” the article said. The USTR confirmed the call took place.
Asian stocks received a boost following the news, but oil prices were little impacted.
U.S. Crude Oil WTI Futures were unchanged at $57.83 by 1:26 AM ET (05:26 GMT), while international Brent Oil Futures slipped 0.1%.
A monthly report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) were cited as a potential catalyst for the selling today. The IEA estimated that non-OPEC supply growth would grow to 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) next year compared with 1.8 million bpd in 2019.
Also weighing on prices were data released late last week that showed weekly U.S. crude stockpiles grew by 2.2 million barrels, exceeding the forecast of a 1.649 million-barrel rise.