Futures Movers: Oil prices edge higher but kick off August on an unsteady note as traders brace for OPEC+ output boost

This post was originally published on this site

Oil futures began August wavering between modest gains and losses early Monday, with OPEC and its allies scheduled to relax curbs on output against a backdrop of nervousness over rising COVID-19 cases.

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery CL.1, +0.19% added 24 cents, or 0.6%, to $40.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while October Brent crude BRN00, +0.11% picked up 26 cents, or 0.6%, to $43.80 a barrel. Both benchmarks have rebounded off their early lows on Monday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed in early July to relax production curbs put in place earlier this year. The measures would effectively boost output by the major producers by around 1.5 million barrels a day beginning this month.

“Investors are worried that the production increase will reverse the recent price recovery in oil, especially as coronavirus cases continue to rise world-wide and energy demand remains subdued,” said Mihir Kapadia, chief executive of Sun Global Investments, in a note.

Oil ended last week on a positive note, leaving WTI with a monthly rise of around 2.6% for July, while Brent rose more than 5% for the month.

Coronavirus infections in the U.S. reached a record in July, with more than 1.9 million new cases. The U.S. now has nearly 4.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and about 155,000 deaths, while the global tally for infections stands at more than 18 million and almost 690,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In other energy trading, September gasoline RBU20, +1.23% was up 1% at $1.1823 a gallon, while September heating oil HOU20, +0.36% was 0.4% higher at $1.2285 a gallon.

September natural-gas futures RBU20, +1.23% surged more than 6% to $1.911 per million British thermal units.