Crude oil futures traded marginally lower on Monday morning, even as the US and China were set to begin negotiations later in the day to ease trade tensions.
At 9.56 am on Monday, August Brent oil futures were at $66.41, down by 0.09 per cent, and July crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $64.54, down by 0.06 per cent. June crude oil futures were trading at ₹5535 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹5534, up by 0.02 per cent, and July futures were trading at ₹5473 against the previous close of ₹5470, up by 0.05 per cent.
On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping held phone talks with US President Donald Trump at the latter’s request. A Reuters report had stated that Xi has asked Trump to back down from trade measures that roiled the global economy during the more than one-hour-long call.
Negotiators from these economies would hold a direct talk in London on Monday as a follow-up of this phone call. According to market reports, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, are likely to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in London On Monday. They are likely to discuss issues related to tariff rollbacks, export controls, and other bilateral trade issues.
Trade-related tensions between these two nations had impacted the global demand for crude oil. Market reports noted that the US-China negotiations could help ease tensions thus boosting the demand for crude oil in the global market. Both US and China are the major crude oil consumers.
According to the latest US jobs report data, unemployment held steady in May in the US. Market reports noted that this could increase the odds of an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. A rate cut could support the crude oil prices, they said.
In their Commodities Feed for Monday, Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy of ING Think, and Ewa Manthey, Commodities Strategist, said the oil market strengthened over the last week thanks to a variety of global events, with the ICE Brent August contract settling almost 5.9 per cent higher. Canadian wildfires provided support, while the market is digesting announced supply hikes for July from OPEC+. The US jobs report for May on Friday also provided a boost, they said.
June natural gas futures were trading at ₹320.60 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹325.70, down by 1.57 per cent.
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), June jeera contracts were trading at ₹20,000 in the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹19,840, up by 0.81 per cent.
June castor seed futures were trading at ₹6,424 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹6,383, up by 0.64 per cent.