Oil futures: Brent rises 1% as equities fall, Europe eases travel restrictions

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – Oil futures rallied by over 1% on Monday, as the market eyed a return to European and US demand, money flowed from equities to commodities and shrugged off the ongoing outbreak in India and mediocre Chinese industrial data.

Front month Brent futures were up 1.1% at $69.53/b by 1811 GMT and trading above all key moving averages.

At the same time June WTI was trading $66.33/b, up 1.4% from Friday's settle of $65.37/b.

The biggest jump of the day came at 1400 UK time, with the front month futures jumping $0.30/b ahead of the US stock market opening.

The rise also came amid news that air passenger data in the US showed more than 1.8 million people boarded planes for the first time in 14 months last week.

The rolling-seven day average for passengers is now just short of 1.6 million per day, up 16% since the start of the month as optimism grows of a return to normal in the world's biggest oil consumer. 

The feel-good factor also came amid an easing of travel restrictions in Europe, where most notably, UK citizens were able to board flights to take holidays for the first time in five months, sparking optimism of greater demand for gasoline and jet.

Portugal and the Netherlands also eased restrictions starting Monday.

The rise in crude ignored bearish to neutral data from China and India, including a 1-million bpd fall in Indian demand for diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, while Chinese demand for crude flatlined in April versus March.