Oil prices fall on lingering concerns of weakening demand

Oil prices fell on Tuesday in Asia amid lingering concerns of weakening global demand.

US Crude Oil WTI Futures fell 0.4% to $57.45 by 12:40 AM ET (04:40 GMT). International Brent Oil Futures were down 0.3% to $63.92.

Oil prices have been under pressure amid worries of weakening demand.

Concerns that the Sino-US trade dispute might drag on for a while, even after the two sides agreed to resume talks, were also cited as headwind for the oil markets.

The countries are the world’s two largest oil consumers.

“Concerns on the outlook for the global economy seem to be outweighing big events like the Middle East tensions at the moment,” said Sungchil Will Yun, a commodities analyst at HI Investment & Futures Corp, in a Bloomberg report.

Meanwhile, US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify before Congress on monetary policy and the state of the US economy on Wednesday and Thursday. Traders will be looking to find out if Powell is still leaning toward a rate cut after Friday’s stellar US jobs report for June suggested the economy may be too strong to justify an easing.

On the data front, Industry and government reports due later in the week are expected to show that US crude stockpiles dropped 3.6 million barrels, according to a preliminary Reuters poll.

In other news, tension in the Middle East remained in focus after Iran admitted over the weekend that it had increased uranium enrichment beyond the purity threshold agreed in a nuclear deal.

Speaking on Sunday, US President Donald Trump warned that Tehran “better be careful” on the decision which he claims to be a step towards the development of nuclear weapons.