The price of Brent oil fell by 1.6%, while WTI oil fell by 0.9%. The oil market has been under pressure from a stronger U.S. currency and weak economic growth in China, which has heightened concerns about demand. However, further price falls are limited by the shutdown of production and exports from Libya, as well as continuing disruptions to supply flows from the Middle East.
The US Dollar Currency Index (DXY), which tracks the dynamics of the dollar against six currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, canadian dollar, pound sterling and swedish krona) rose by 0.17% to 101.82.
Meanwhile, official Chinese PMI data came in below economists' forecasts, adding to concerns about the performance of the Chinese economy, which is the world's largest importer of crude oil. Separate data showed that China's new export orders fell in July (for the first time in eight months), and new home price growth slowed to an 8-month low in August.
As for the situation in Libya, oil exports at major ports were halted on Monday and production curtailed across the country. Meanwhile, experts said that so far, problems with oil production in Libya have provided limited support to prices due to uncertainty about how long those outages might last. However, some supply is set to return to the market, as a number of OPEC+ members plan to increase production by 180,000 barrels per day in October. This plan is likely to be implemented regardless of concerns about demand, industry sources said.