Oil prices fall when demand expectations hit trade tensions <Al Watan newspaper

Oil prices fell on Monday because of new worries about global economic growth after US President Donald Trump pledged to step up a trade war with China by imposing more tariffs on Beijing, which would curb probably the fuel demand of the world's largest consumers of crude oil.
At 6:40 am GMT, London Brent's barrel was up 92 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $ 60.97 a barrel.
WTI futures dropped 73 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $ 54.93 a barrel.
Brent crude and West Texas crude fell last week, Brent down 2.5% and US crude down 1%.
Asian stocks fell to their lowest level in six months on Monday, as gold prices rose as investors sought to acquire safe haven badets, due to escalating trade disputes between China and the United States, the world's two largest economies.
Trump announced last week that it would impose a 10% charge on Chinese imports, worth $ 300 billion as of September 1, and that it could increase the rights of customs again if Chinese President Xi Jinping did not act more quickly towards a trade agreement.
On Monday, China let the yuan fall below the $ 7 mark for the first time in more than a decade, suggesting that China could let the currency fall further due to the trade dispute.
The depreciation of the yuan would increase the cost of China's oil imports in US dollars. Beijing is the largest importer of oil in the world.
Prices are also under pressure because of signs of increased US oil exports. US Census Bureau data released on Friday show that US oil exports rose 260,000 barrels a day in June, reaching a record monthly level of 3.16 million barrels a day. Agencies