Oil prices ended slightly higher on Monday following a volatile day of choppy trading as the January WTI contract was set to expire, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
February West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed up 11 cents, or 0.2%, to end trading at $53.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The January contract, which expires on Tuesday, ended up 22 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $52.12 a barrel.
February Brent crude, the global benchmark, retreated 29 cents, or 0.5%, to end trading at $54.92 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
“I think we will see less trading due to the holiday period but traders also are waiting to see the impact of potential cuts from OPEC and non-OPEC members starting to show up in the data,” said Matt Smith, ClipperData’s director of commodity research.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures ended down 2.3 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $3.3920 per million British thermal units.