Concerns about demand fuel bearish sentiment as oil prices ease due to weak China data

In the early hours of Wednesday, oil prices experienced a slight decline due to growing concerns about sluggish demand from China, the world’s top crude importer. These concerns were amplified by bearish trade data, overshadowing fears about tighter global supply resulting from production cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Brent crude futures dropped by 0.2%, or 17 cents, settling at $86.00 a barrel by 0039 GMT. Similarly, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell by 0.2%, or 19 cents, to $82.73 a barrel.

The previous day, both contracts saw an increase of nearly $1.

Chiyoki Chen, the chief analyst at Sunward Trading, explained that “oil prices are struggling to further rise because of lingering concerns over a sluggish recovery in China’s economy and fuel demand.” Chen also added that “with worries over slowing demand in the United States and Europe due to a series of interest rate hikes, the upside of oil markets looks to be limited,” predicting that WTI would trade between $75 and $85 a barrel later this month.

Last week, both Brent crude and WTI crude marked their sixth consecutive weekly gains, which is the longest winning streak since December 2021 to January 2022. This growth was supported by a reduction in OPEC+ supplies and optimism regarding stimulus measures boosting oil demand recovery in China.

However, customs data showed that China’s crude oil imports in July declined by

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