Oil Futures Lack Direction in Asia Trade

Oil futures are lacking direction in Asian trade at the start of the week, after Friday's jump in prices.

--On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in September was recently up 3 cents at $48.54 a barrel in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on London's ICE Futures was unchanged at $52.72.

--Investors are weighing evidence of some slight declines in global stockpiles as well as a decline in the U.S. rig count, though investors appear unconvinced yet that the production caps led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are leading to market tightening.

--Despite sustained drawdowns in U.S. crude inventories, the market has so far largely failed to react, notes Ben Wilson, RBC Capital Markets oil and gas analyst.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2017 00:26 ET (04:26 GMT)