Saudi Arabia, White House play down Trump comments

Oil futures kicked off the second half of the year with some losses on Monday, amid concerns global oil producers could bump up production more than investors expect.

Crude contracts pared bigger losses earlier stemming from a weekend tweet from President Donald Trump, who talked about a big potential production increase from Saudi Arabia.

August West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange  CLQ8, -0.47%  was down 41 cents, or nearly 0.6%, at $73.74 a barrel, poised to give up much of Friday's 1% rise. September Brent LCOU8, -1.62%  dropped $1.10, or 1.4%, to $78.13 a barrel.

WTI crude notched another finish at its highest since November 2014 on Friday, while also logging strong weekly, monthly, quarterly and first-half 2018 gains. Prices have driven higher by long-running efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce production, anticipated increases in demand and supply disruptions.

Brent crude logged its best finish since May on Friday, after also seeing strong gains in the first half of the year.