Crude oil prices continued to decline on Monday in the global commodity market due to concerns about demand brought on by fears of a recession in the US, which is the world’s largest oil user.
The closing price of the previous trading session, when the international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $76.81 per barrel, was down 0.46% to $76.46 per barrel.
At the same moment, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $73.19 a barrel, down 0.45% from the previous session’s closing price of $73.52 per barrel.
The US economy created 114,000 new jobs in July, far fewer than the 176,000 projected by the market, according to Labor Department data released on Friday.
Data fueled worries that the central bank could have been too late to ease its monetary policy, pushing the US economy into a recession. Demand worries in the world’s largest oil consumer contributed to Chinese demand concerns lingering in the oil market for some time.
However, oil prices were supported by geopolitical risks in the Middle East, home to a vast majority of global oil reserves. Increased regional tension paved the way for concerns about a wider conflict and supply disruptions.
