Tokyo, Crude oil price futures are slightly bearish early in the first day of this week’s trading session, after a three-day Easter break, as investors witnessed a three consecutive weekly gain in oil prices that was brought out by North Korea’s missile launch on Sunday.
Both benchmarks closed out the Easter holiday eve higher for a third consecutive week, with Brent Crude adding 1.2 percent over the four days and WTI up by 1.8 percent.
The Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 18 cents and was sold at 55.71 per barrel as of 00:47 GMT. On last week Thursday, before the break, the Brent futures closed most markets settling up 3 cents at $55.98 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were also bearish and were down by 18 cents being sold at $53 per barrel. The WTI futures rose by 7 cents to $53.18 a barrel on Thursday.
The submissive started this week came as markets braced f or more geopolitical tensions over North Korea, after its attempted launch on Sunday of a ballistic missile failed as the projectile blew up almost immediately.
The United States is working with allies and China on responses to the failed test, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday. Crude traders and investors in Asia also have their first chance to assess a 13th consecutive increase in the number of oil rigs that dig up shale oil in the U.S.