Monday morning, oil prices are slightly lower than the closing level on Friday after four weeks of weekly increases. However, compared to the levels at the close of trading on Friday afternoon, prices are slightly higher.

A barrel of the European reference oil, Brent, costs USD 80.97 on Monday morning against USD 80.25 on Friday afternoon, compared to a closing level on Friday of USD 81.07. Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at USD 76.96 compared to USD 76.33 on Friday afternoon, but lower than Friday’s closing level of USD 77.07 – the highest closing level in three months, where expectations of production cuts from OPEC+ have pushed the price up.

The slower recovery of the Chinese economy has also had an increasing impact on oil prices.

”Expectations of a Fed rate hike may be putting some pressure on the market but this hike should already be largely priced in,” Warren Patterson, chief commodity strategist at ING, tells Bloomberg News.