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Crude-oil futures were sharply lower in Asian trade Monday, extending their slide from last week as positive Chinese trade data and an increase in September crude imports failed to bolster global oil prices.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at $84.46 a barrel, down $1.36 in the Globex electronic session. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $1.43 to $88.78 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude lost 4.37% last week and has fallen for two consecutive weeks, while Brent crude has fallen for three consecutive weeks and lost 2.27% last week. Official customs data showed that China’s overall exports and imports in September rose from a year earlier, and topped market expectations, indicating an improvement in the country’s economy. China, the world’s second-largest consumer of oil, also posted a 7.4% increase in September crude imports from a year earlier and a rise of around 9.5% from August, according to The Wall Street Journal’s calculations. However, market participants were unconvinced that the numbers indicate a sustained improvement in oil demand, and remained concerned about more price cuts by Middle Eastern oil producers.
Most recently, Iran cut its oil official selling prices to Asia to its lowest level since December 2008, soon after a similar cut by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to multi-year lows. “We expect producers to continue their strategy of maintaining or building market share in the region as the supply overhang persists,” Barclays analyst Miswin Mahesh said in a weekly report. Speculators continued to liquidate their holdings in oil markets as prices fall below key support levels. Money managers such as hedge funds added bearish bets for Nymex WTI contracts and reduced net-long positions by 4.8% in the week October 7, latest CFTC data showed.