Oil sharpens decline to multi-week lows on global demand concerns

Oil prices fell in European trade on Friday for the third straight session, with US crude marking seven-week lows, while Brent plumbed a three-week trough on growing concerns over weakening global demand as the US-China trade dispute deteriorates, while the dollar rallies against major rivals. 

As of 08:54 GMT, US crude fell to $66.55 a barrel, marking June 22 lows at $66.13, while Brent futures fell to $71.75 a barrel, plumbing July 18 lows at $71.39. 

US crude futures due in September lost 0.1% yesterday, while Brent October futures slipped 0.3% on global trade concerns. 

The Sino-US trade war took another turn to the worse this week, with China slapping $16 billion worth of US imports with 25% additional tariffs in response to similar tariffs by the US. 

The dollar index rose 0.6% on Friday for the second session in a row, marking a 13-month peak at 96.02 and heaping pressure on dollar-denominated commodity futures such as oil contracts. 

Also steep declines in currencies of emerging economies such as India, Turkey, and Yuan have made oil imports more expensive, potentially hurting demand.