WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices were seeing modest gains on their first trading session of 2023.
Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.4 percent to $86.23 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were up half a percent at $80.67.
Prices recovered from their early weakness after the International Monetary Fund's managing director warned a third of the world's economies may slide into a recession in 2023.
A weak manufacturing activity survey from China, the world's largest crude importer and second-largest oil consumer, also weighed on prices earlier in the session.
China's factory activity deteriorated further at the end of the year as COVID-19 containment measures together with softer demand forced manufacturers to downsize production, a survey showed earlier today.
The Caixin manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index edged down to 49.0 in December from 49.4 in the previous month, remaining below the neutral 50.0 mark for the fifth successive month.
The official PMI survey results published over the weekend also showed that China's manufacturing and services sectors weakened the most since early 2020.
On the positive side, China's state media played down the severity of the COVID-19 wave surging over the country ahead of a briefing to the World Health Organization later in the day.
People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, cited several Chinese experts as saying the illness caused by the virus was relatively mild for the vast majority of people.
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