Brent Nears $100 On Oversupply

Brent crude oil dipped below $101 on Monday morning after last week’s jobs data disappointed. The commodity traded at $100.81 at 4:50 GMT as investors worried about demand in an oversupplied market. 

On Friday, the highly anticipated US non farm payrolls data came in below expectations, suggesting that the number one oil consuming nation’s demand may not pick up as quickly as originally believed. The report showed that US employers added just 142,000 new jobs in August, a big discrepancy from analysts’ expectations of a 225,000 rise. 

Economic data out on Monday from China helped keep a floor under prices, but failed to overshadow the disappointment from last week’s US figures. Reuters reported that Chinese exports increased by 9.4 percent in August, but imports declined by 2.4 percent. The nation’s crude imports rose by 6 percent from July to August, a promising sign after months of lackluster data.

Geopolitical tension around the world has taken on an unusual role in oil prices recently, with investors not worrying about supply interruptions, but instead the impact that the uncertainty will have on European oil demand. The EU has been under a lot of pressure recently as the conflict in Ukraine has resulted in a sanctions war with Russia that has negatively impacted the bloc’s economy.

The region’s policy makers agreed to increase sanctions against Russia last week, something that could hurt the eurozone economy as much as it does Moscow as Russia is one of the bloc’s largest trading partners. Though Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko announced that he had come to a ceasefire agreement with the separatists’ leader, fighting over the weekend continued and killed at least one person and wounded several others, proving that the conflict is far from resolved.