Oil prices mixed, soft Asia data add to complicated market

Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday morning in Asia, with oil held in check by ongoing concerns over the U.S.-China trade war and soft South Korean economic data throwing a curveball into an already complicated market.

U.S. Crude Oil WTI Futures slipped 0.4% to $54.88 a barrel by 01:05 AM ET (05:05 GMT) whereas Brent Oil Futures was up 0.02% higher at $58.67 a barrel.

The 14-month old U.S.-China tariffs tit for tat escalated this week. U.S. tariffs of 15% on about US$110 billion of Chinese goods and Chinese tariffs of between 5% and 10% on about US$75 billion worth of U.S. goods took effect over the weekend.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters over the weekend that trade talks between both sides would resume in Washington this month. But China’s commerce ministry said that they were “still discussing” whether they would send a delegation.

The U.S.-China trade dispute has also affected South Korea’s economy. According to central bank data, it turned out to have expanded less than estimated during the second quarter as exports were revised down.

Argentina’s move to impose capital controls is attracting attention to emerging market risks.

“Oil will struggle to make substantial headway topside this week with no progress on trade talks or meetings even, soft data from Asia and a possible cracking of OPEC’s resolve to control production,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, according to Reuters.

Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose in August, a first for this year. The increase marked a first since OPEC agreed with Russia and other non-members countries, a group known as OPEC+, in December to reduce supply by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from Jan. 1 this year.

OPEC’s contribution to the cut is 800,000 bpd to be delivered by 11 members. Iran, Libya and Venezuela are exempted.

Higher supplies from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed restraint by Saudi Arabia and losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Earlier this week, data showed that Russian oil production C-RU-OUT rose to 11.294 million bpd last month. This tops the rate Moscow had pledged to restrict output under the pact and is the highest since March.