By Christopher Alessi and Amrith Ramkumar

-- Oil prices inched higher Monday, boosted by a weaker dollar that makes commodities cheaper for overseas buyers.

-- Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading up 0.5% at $60.56 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

-- West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. oil standard, were up 0.1% at $51.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

HIGHLIGHTS

Dollar Support: A weaker dollar helped bolster oil prices at the start of the week, after a stronger U.S. currency had provided a headwind for crude prices at the end of last week and for much of the year.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 other currencies, fell 0.3%. Still, some analysts expect investors to continue favoring the safety of the dollar amid fears of a global economic slowdown, potentially challenging commodities moving forward.

Those broad growth fears have stoked worries about weaker oil consumption, hurting oil in recent weeks, analysts say.

Rigs: Analysts were also weighing figures from Baker Hughes Friday showing a decline in the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week. The rig count fell by four to 873 last week, a sign of slowing production. Record U.S. output has been a major factor in oil's recent slide.

INSIGHT

OPEC+: Oil market participants continue to debate whether a decision to cut output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partner producers, led by Russia, will be enough to rein in a burgeoning supply glut and bolster prices.

As part of the deal, OPEC and its allies plan to curb crude production by a collective 1.2 million barrels a day starting next month. But while news of the deal initially bolstered crude by as much as 5%, prices have since retreated and are hovering around levels from before the OPEC+ agreement. Prices have come down more than 30% from four-year highs reached at the start of October.

"The truth of the matter is that fresh OPEC+ cuts will not go far enough to overturn the incumbent supply surplus," said Stephen Brennock, analyst at brokerage PVM Oil Associates Ltd. "Accordingly, oversupply concerns will continue to stifle buying pressures."

Hedge funds and other speculative investors have pushed net bets on higher U.S. crude prices to their lowest level since August 2016, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission figures. Speculative interest in Brent has also been tepid, analysts say.

"This limited amount of spec buying clearly indicates that speculators were left underwhelmed following the OPEC+ meeting on the 7th of December," according to Warren Patterson, commodities strategist at ING Bank.

AHEAD

The U.S. Energy Information Administration Monday is slated to release its monthly drilling productivity report. The agency will also release weekly U.S. oil-inventory data Wednesday.

Write to Christopher Alessi at christopher.alessi@wsj.com and Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 17, 2018 10:46 ET (15:46 GMT)

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