Oil fell below $49 a barrel on Monday after its biggest two-day rally in six years last week, pressured by a supply glut and renewed concern about a hard landing for China’s economy.
International benchmark Brent crude climbed 10 percent last week but was still heading for its fourth straight monthly decline and has risen in only two of the past 14 months.
At 1340 GMT, Brent LCOc1 was down $1.28 at $48.77 a barrel and U.S. crude CLc1, which had rallied 12 percent last week, dropped $1.00 to $44.22.
“Volatility was high last week, so now we’re seeing some retracement – $50 is proving to be a resistance level,” said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix, referring to Brent. “It is still a market which is very well supplied.”
Volume is expected to be lower than normal on Monday because of a British public holiday.
