By Alex Lawler
LONDON (Reuters) -Oil slipped on Monday, weighed down by Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating and official data that showed slowing growth in China’s industrial output and retail sales.
Both developments raised concerns over the outlook for the world’s two biggest economies and oil consumers a week after Beijing and Washington’s agreement to roll back most tariffs on each other’s goods pushed oil prices higher.
“The timing is damaging,” John Evans of oil broker PVM said of the U.S. rating cut. “The change may see limited impact and its effect might be a creep of monetary disease rather than a tree-felling crash, but its fallout will be keenly watched.”
Brent crude futures edged down 34 cents, or 0.5%, to $65.07 a barrel by 0812 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped by 27 cents, or 0.4%, to $62.22. The nearby June WTI contract expires on Tuesday.
Both contracts rose more than 1% last week.
The Moody’s downgrade on Friday raises questions about the outlook for the U.S. economy while the Chinese data points to a bumpy road ahead for any economic recovery, said Priyanka Sachdeva, a senior market analyst at Phillip Nova.
The official Chinese data on Monday showed growth in industrial output slowed in April, though performance was still better than economists had expected.
Investors are keeping an eye on progress in the Iran-U.S. nuclear talks, with uncertainty over the outcome limiting losses in oil prices.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that any deal must include an agreement not to enrich uranium, a comment that swiftly drew criticism from Tehran.
(Reporting by Alex LawlerAddiitional reporting by Florence Tan and Emily ChowEditing by David Goodman)
