Oil Prices Slip As Iran Tensions Ease

(RTTNews) - Oil prices traded lower on Monday, handing back some of the previous week's gains as tensions over Iran cooled and investors monitored the latest developments over Greenland.

Benchmark Brent crude futures fell a little over 1 percent to $63.46 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were down 1 percent at $58.74.

Iran's crackdown on protests quelled civil unrest, lowering the chance of an attack that could disrupt supplies from the major Middle Eastern producer.

Iran accounts for a significant share of global output and therefore recent signs that there would be no immediate U.S. military intervention helped reduce risks to supply across the Persian Gulf region.

Attention has now turned to U.S. President Donald Trump's threats over Greenland.

Trump today doubled down on his plan to acquire Greenland, saying NATO had warned Denmark for years about the "Russian threat" to Greenland and claimed Copenhagen had failed to act.

"Now it is time, and it will be done!!!" Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform ahead of this week's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

Major European Union states decried the tariff threats over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday, with French President Emmanuel Macron asking the EU to activate its "anti-coercion" measure - dubbed its trade "bazooka" - for the first time, injecting fresh trade uncertainty.

Elsewhere, China entered 2026 with a mixed economic picture. Official data showed China's economy expanded by 5 percent in 2025, meeting the government's annual growth target.

Industrial production growth for December beat expectations but retail sales and fixed asset investment numbers came in below estimates.

The unemployment rate came in at 5.1 percent last month, unchanged from the November reading.

China's new bank lending in 2025 slumped to a seven-year low, raising concerns over demand prospects in the country.