Oil futures drifted lower early Monday as investors awaited economic data from China for clues to crude demand.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery
CL00,
-0.80% CLK23,
-0.80%
fell 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $82.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
June Brent crude
BRN00,
-0.73% BRNM23,
-0.73% ,
the global benchmark, was off 31 cents, or 0.4%, at $86 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. -
Back on Nymex, May gasoline
RBK23,
-1.55%
fell 1% to $2.808 a gallon, while May heating oil
HOK23,
-0.92%
fell 0.4% to $2.63 a gallon. -
Natural gas for May delivery
NGK23,
+7.81%
jumped 2.5% to $2.166 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
Oil futures on Friday logged a fourth straight weekly gain. The International Energy Agency on Friday warned that the market faced a large supply deficit in the third quarter. Saudi Arabia and its OPEC+ allies in early April announced production cuts totaling around 1.16 million barrels a day beginning in May and running through the end of the year. Russia, meanwhile, said it would extend a cut of 500,000 barrels a day through year-end.
A fairly quiet week is shaping up on the energy calendar, but March industrial output data from China on Tuesday will include domestic refining activity, noted strategists at ING, in a Monday note, while broader markets will pay close attention to first quarter Chinese gross domestic product data with the market expecting a year-over-year number of around 3.9%.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
