The catalyst behind the increase was a jump in spending from households in Texas and Florida that were forced to replace flood-damaged motor vehicles caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, edged up 0.1 percent in September. In other news, traders said that a 900,000 barrel per day export capacity increase from Iraq's southern ports to 4.6 million bpd, reported on Sunday, had prevented Brent from rising further.