Oil prices are largely unchanged on Monday morning. However, there is a marginal increase from the level at the close of trading on Friday at 17:00.

News media Reuters reports that investors are treading carefully ahead of economic data from both the US and China this week, and at the same time, expectations of further production cuts from Saudi Arabia are weighing on the market.

A barrel of the European reference oil, Brent, costs USD 78 on Monday morning compared to USD 77.66 on Friday afternoon. At the same time, US WTI oil is trading at USD 73.40 compared to 72.98 on Friday afternoon.

”Oil traders are likely to be cautious ahead of US consumer data and a raft of economic data from China expected later this week,” says Tina Teng, analyst at CMC Markets, according to Reuters.

Teng adds that oil prices could see increases after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) announced intentions to cut oil production further.

Oil prices rose by more than 4 percent last week, reaching the highest level since May. Oil prices rose for the second week in a row on announcements of continued production cuts in August from Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Saudi Arabia will extend its cuts of 1 million barrels per day into August, while Russia will export 500,000 barrels per day less per day.

According to Mukesh Sahdev, senior vice president at Rystad Energy, the stability of the oil market is affected by a continued tug-of-war between fears of Western economies’ demand control on the one hand and OPEC’s strategies to control supply on the other, Reuters reports.

In the rest of the commodities market, a troy ounce of gold on Monday morning cost USD 1,923.45 compared to 1,933.84 on Friday afternoon.