Brent Near $108 With Tension In Israel In Focus

Brent crude oil declined on Monday as tension in Gaza cooled off following a difficult  to achieve humanitarian agreement between Hamas and Israeli forces.

The commodity traded at $107.96 at 6:15 GMT, with most expecting to see prices rise again if fighting on the Gaza strip restarts.

CNBC reported that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was unable to get the Israeli government and Hamas to agree on a comprehensive ceasefire, but a 24-hour pledge to stop fighting was implemented.

However, without concrete plan of action for the future, most analysts expect oil prices to increase once the deal expires. 

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Tension in Libya and Ukraine also weighed on prices as investors kept an eye on the potential for those nations’ conflicts to interrupt supplies. In Libya, more fighting left around 36 people dead over the weekend as Islamist militants and government forces battled for control in Benghazi.

The crisis in Ukraine also raged on with both the U.S. and the EU preparing sanctions against Moscow.

Despite instability around the world, the general market sentiment is that there is an oversupply at the moment, which has kept a lid on prices. Moving forward, investors will have their eyes on economic data for a better gauge of global demand.

U.S. data due out this week is expected to follow suit with the region’s past few weeks of strong figures, while eurozone data is expected to confirm the region’s slowdown and provide more evidence to support theories that the European Central Bank will ease further.