Oil rises with eyes on Iraq; stocks, dollar little changed

By Trend

Oil prices jumped on Monday as supply issues took center stage following a week of sharp losses, while stocks and the dollar were little changed with eyes on the upcoming Sino-U.S. trade talks, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Oil was bid higher as deadly anti-government unrest gripped Iraq, the second-largest producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Iraq’s oil exports could be partly disrupted if instability lasts for weeks, Ayham Kamel, Middle East and North Africa head at Eurasia Group, said in a note.

“Any oil production disruption would occur at a time when Saudi Arabia has lost a significant part of its energy system redundancies (spare capacity),” he said.

U.S. crude CLc1 rose 1.63% to $53.67 per barrel and Brent LCOc1 was last at $59.11, up 1.27% on the day.

Remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and minutes from the most recent Fed meeting will later this week keep traders looking for signs on what the central bank is considering in its upcoming meeting.

On Wall Street, major stock indexes were little changed as the most recent catalyst, U.S.-China trade, is on hold ahead of talks that resume on Thursday.

Stocks were hit last week on concerns that softening U.S. manufacturing and services sector data was a harbinger for a slide to recession in the world’s largest economy. Strong jobs data on Friday softened the blow.

“The market is going to be volatile until we get some news out of Washington. Everything, literally, depends on the tone around trade,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 18.15 points, or 0.07%, to 26,555.57, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.68 points, or 0.06%, to 2,950.33 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 2.25 points, or 0.03%, to 7,984.72.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.71% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.07%.

Emerging market stocks lost 0.25%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.04% lower, while Japan's Nikkei .N225 lost 0.16%.

The dollar was little changed against a basket of its peers, but Turkey’s lira slid to its lowest level against the dollar in more than a month after the White House said Ankara would soon launch unilateral military operations in northeast Syria.