New York — Oil prices fell nearly 2 % on Monday, pulling back from last week’s rally built on signs the global market is starting to rebalance from chronic oversupply. Brent crude futures lost 2%, or $1.07, at $51.65 a barrel as of 4.01pm GMT, after surging more than 3% on Friday. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 1.9 %, or 90 cents, to $47.63 a barrel. The contract had also risen 3% in the previous session. "We are currently seeing some profit-taking after Friday’s strong rally ahead of this week’s inventory data," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro. "Fresh uncertainty about inventories and Opec compliance (with agreed production cuts) could be enough reason to sell some of the long positions." US hedge funds and money managers have already started reducing bets on rising prices, with Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showing on Friday that investors had cut bullish bets on US crude for a second straight week. Investors in Europe disagree o...
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