Crude Oil Snaps Five-Day Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - After moving to the upside early in the session, the price of crude oil gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Monday.

Crude for February delivery fell $0.46 or 0.5 percent to $73.50 a barrel after reaching a nearly three-month intraday high of $74.99 a barrel. With the decrease, the price of crude oil snapped a five-day winning streak.

Oil prices initially benefitted from weakness in the value of the U.S. dollar after a Washington Post report suggested President-elect Donald Trump may scale back his tariff plans.

While Trump previously called for "universal" tariffs of as high as 10 or 20 percent on everything imported into the U.S., the Washington Post said his aides are now exploring plans that would apply tariffs to every country but only cover "critical imports."

However, buying interest waned over the course of the session, as the dollar regained ground after Trump dismissed the report as "fake news."

The downside remained capped after top oil exporter Saudi Arabia raised prices for Asian buyers for the first time in three months.

Elsewhere, additional economic stimulus from China is expected to underpin fuel demand in the world's largest crude importer.

There were reports that the People's Bank of China will issue the largest-ever offshore yuan bonds in Hong Kong this month.