LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices edged lower Monday as underwhelming Chinese manufacturing data and fresh restrictions in Asia sparked by surging COVID-19 cases weighed on sentiment, although European economic reopenings lent some support.
Brent crude fell 30 cents, or 0.4%, to $68.41 a barrel at 1302 GMT, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude was down by 34 cents, or 0.5%, at $65.03.
“The market is seemingly trapped between observing encouraging improvements in demand in the United States and Europe, and the sluggishness in consumption due to the persistence of COVID-19 in Asia,” said StoneX analyst Kevin Solomon.
The British economy reopened on Monday, giving 65 million people a measure of freedom after the gloom of a four-month COVID-19 lockdown.
