Oil prices fall sharply on elevated demand fears; volatile trading

Investing.com -- Oil prices fell sharply Monday, extending recent losses in a volatile session as fears of a U.S. recession offset supply worries stemming from mounting tensions in the Middle East.

At 07:45 ET (11:45 GMT), Brent oil futures fell 1.8% to $75.43 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped 2.1% to $72.01 a barrel.

Oil battered by mounting demand fears

The crude market continued to weaken Monday, after plummeted to eight-month lows last week after a string of weak U.S. economic readings ramped up concerns that the world’s biggest economy was headed for a recession.

Brent and WTI tumbled more than 3% on Friday, with both contracts marking their fourth straight week of losses - the biggest losing streaks since November.

While the lackluster U.S. data, including a disappointing nonfarm payrolls report, did push up expectations for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, it also raised the question of whether the Fed may be too late in cutting rates now to offset a significant economic downturn.

The prospect of a recession in the world’s biggest fuel consumer bodes poorly for future demand, even as recent inventory data showed that increased travel demand during the summer season had kept fuel consumption high.

Weak economic signals from China were also a major point of pain in recent weeks, as dismal data from the world’s biggest oil importer pushed up concerns over slowing demand.

Israel-Hamas fears remain in play

Concerns over a conflict in the Middle East - which could disrupt oil supplies from the crude-rich region - remained in play, as Israel kept up its offensive in Gaza.

Israel had also been linked with the deaths of several high-profile leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah last week, drawing ire from the groups and raising the threat of an all-out war in the region.

This notion had kept traders attaching some element of risk premium to oil prices, although it still did little to deter oil’s sharp decline in recent weeks.

Peace talks between Israel and Hamas appeared to have yielded little progress towards a ceasefire, even as the U.S. called for a deescalation.

Tropical Storm Debby approaches Gulf Coast

Also of interest is the incoming Tropical Storm Debby, which is expected to strengthen rapidly into a hurricane before making landfall in Florida's Gulf Coast later in the session, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

Oil major Chevron (NYSE:CVX) said on Sunday that it had removed non-essential personnel from its facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, but production had yet to be impacted.

(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)

This article first appeared in Investing.com