Oil prices fell more than one per cent on Monday after Saudi Arabia's de facto leader said war with Iran would destroy the world economy and hinted instead at a non-military solution.
Washington, Riyadh, Berlin, London and Paris blame Iran for attacks that damaged the Saudi oil sector on September 14 and forced the world's largest crude exporter to sharply reduce production.
Stock markets were mostly higher as traders tracked the latest twists and turns regarding the US-China trade war. The dollar was mixed against main rivals.
"In terms of geopolitical concerns, common sense is prevailing for now in Saudi Arabia," noted analyst Naeem Aslam at traders ThinkMarkets, in reference to the comments by Saudi Arabia's crown prince in an interview with CBS show "60 minutes" broadcast over the weekend.
Mohammed bin Salman said a war would be catastrophic for global growth.
"Oil supplies will be disrupted and oil prices will jump to unimaginably high numbers that we haven't seen in our lifetimes," the prince said.
"The region represents about 30 percent of the world's energy supplies, about 20 percent of global trade passages, about four percent of the world GDP. Imagine all of these three things stop," he said.
