WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices fell sharply on Monday, as a fresh flare up of COVID-19 cases in China raised fears of new lockdowns and added to global growth worries.
Benchmark Brent crude futures fell over 2 percent to $104.76 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures were down 2.4 percent at 102.31.
Both contracts posted weekly declines last week on concerns that aggressive policy tightening by major central banks would spark a recession and dent oil demand.
Multiple Chinese cities are adopting fresh COVID-19 curbs, with the commercial hub of Shanghai bracing for another mass testing campaign after detecting the highly transmissible BA.5 Omicron subvariant over the weekend.
Investor sentiment was also dented by worries that rising interest rates to curb inflation would spark a recession.
After the June jobs report showed resilient hiring, investors now await a slew of U.S. economic data this week including reports on consumer and producer price inflation for additional clues on the outlook for interest rates.
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