Oil prices hold gains on economic data

Oil prices maintained most of the gains they made last week, which exceeded 3%, in early Asian trading on Monday, due to geopolitical tensions and good economic data. Brent crude futures fell seven cents, or 0.09 %, to $79.59 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose two cents, or 0.03 %, to $76.86 a barrel. Brent crude ended last week up more than 3.5 % over the week, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose more than four percent thanks to good economic data and increased hopes for a US interest rate cut. Three policymakers at the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) said last week that they had become more confident that inflation was declining enough to allow interest rates to be cut by next month. Source: National Iraqi News Agency