Oil Prices Edge Lower; Trump-Putin Summit In Focus

Investing.com – Oil prices edged lower on Monday as traders awaited the outcome of the first offcial dialogue between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin summit in Helsinki later in the day.

 for September delivery were trading at $69.53 a barrel at 12:05AM ET (04:05 GMT), down 0.6%. for September delivery, traded in London, were also down 0.5% at $74.92 per barrel.

“A summit between U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin is being watched in case they say something about oil,” said Kim Kwang-rae, commodity analyst at Samsung (KS:) Futures in Seoul.

Trump has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with higher oil prices and has urged OPEC to lower prices earlier this month.

Reports that the U.S. is considering to rein in prices by tapping into its emergency crude supplies were also cited as headwind for oil prices.

The Trump’s administration is reportedly mulling the release of oil from the nation’s 660-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve to stabilize rallying gasoline prices.

The continued trade concerns between the U.S. and China remained in focus, as traders fear the development could threaten global demand.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that he and the administration are “available” for discussion, but China must first agree to deeper economic reforms. 

“To the extent that China wants to make structural changes, I and the administration are available,” Mnuchin said on Thursday. “We are not advocating tariffs. We are advocating fair trade.” 

Meanwhile, Supply disruptions resulting from strike actions in Norway and Iraq eased on Monday, while reports that Libyan ports resumed export activities pushed oil prices lower.

“Crude oil prices fell as fears of supply disruptions eased. News that Libya’s state oil producer had restarted output from a major oil field ignited the selloff earlier in the week,” ANZ Bank said in a note.

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