Oil prices slip again as spectre of trade war, demand concerns haunts market

SINGAPORE, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped on Tuesday
for a second straight session as the cons of a slowing global
demand outlook outweighed the pros of OPEC's agreement with
associated producers at the end of last week to deepen crude
output cuts in early 2020.
Brent futures LCOc1 were down 11 cents, or 0.2%, at $64.14
per barrel by 0204 GMT while West Texas Intermediate oil futures
CLc1 were down 7 cents, or 0.1% to $58.95 a barrel. The
benchmarks fell 0.2% and 0.3% respectively on Monday.
"The euphoria (on output cuts) was short lived, with an
unexpected fall in exports from China highlighting the impact of
the trade conflict," said ANZ Bank in a note on Tuesday.
Data released on Sunday showed exports from China in
November fell 1.1% from a year earlier, confounding expectations
for a 1% rise in a Reuters poll. That weakness came amid with fresh fronts in the trade war
between Washington and Beijing that has stymied global economic
growth coming up fast: Washington's next round of tariffs
against some $156 billion Chinese goods are scheduled to take
effect on Dec. 15.
U.S. President Donald Trump does not want to implement the
next round of tariffs, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue
said on Monday - but he wants "movement" from China to avoid
them. "With the swathe of new tariffs due to kick in on 15
December, the market is watching negotiations closely," said
ANZ.
Analysts said that, though overshadowed for now, the move by
'OPEC+' - the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) and associated producers like Russia - to deepen output
cuts from 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.7 million bpd
would remain a mid-term support factor. "While risks remain into year-end on U.S.-China trade talks,
the OPEC decision removes a fundamental uncertainty," said
Stephen Innes, market strategist at AxiTrader.
"So, prices aren't about to fall off a cliff anytime soon if
OPEC has a say in the matter."