WTI & Brent both trade ~$0.30 below their.......>

OIL: WTI & Brent both trade ~$0.30 below their respective settlement levels,

after settling ~$1.90 & ~$2.20 lower Friday. Crude struggled during the European

morning on Friday, with rumours doing the rounds re: the U.S. giving China a

waiver on Iranian crude purchases, but these proved to be unsubstantiated (late

Friday saw RTRS sources note that neither "a wind-down period nor a short-term

waiver on China's oil purchases from Iran are being contemplated.")

- Friday also saw U.S. President Trump tweet "spoke to Saudi Arabia & others

about increasing oil flow. All are in agreement." This was later denied by WSJ

sources, who revealed that "President Trump hasn't spoken over the phone with

the OPEC secretary-general or with the Saudi energy minister, asking to lower

oil prices." The impact of Trump's tweet was much heavier than the rebuttal,

although a downtick in active U.S. oil rigs in the latest week's Baker Hughes

rig count, coupled with the WSJ source report helped crude off of lows.

- The weekend saw the Libyan conflict continue to escalate, the resumption of

kidnappings & murders on the Nigerian Delta and Russian President Putin note

that he hoped Iranian oil exports would continue.