Oil prices opened with some losses on Monday due to Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs increase on Chinese goods ahead of the US scheduled talks with China this week.
RUINOUS SALES IN OIL
At the start of the year, Trump threatened to increase the tariffs, but the US postponed that decision after China and the US agreed to sit down for trade talks.
However, on Sunday Trump announced that tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, which had an original tariff rate of 10 percent, would more than double to 25 percent on Friday. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $69.74 per barrel, while American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) amounted to $60.45 at 06.56 GMT on Monday.
On Friday, oil prices opened with some gains to recover from a sudden dive on Thursday, caused by an unexpected increase in US crude oil inventories and with crude production hitting an all-time high.
Brent crude plummeted 2,5 percent on Thursday to close at $70.34 per barrel, but recovered by 0.22 percent to trade at $70.50 a barrel at 06.30 GMT on Friday. WTI was at $61.75 per barrel at the same time early Friday.
Meanwhile, the number of US oil rigs increased to 807 for the week ending May 3, up by two over the previous week, according to data released by oilfield services company Baker Hughes on Friday. Despite this increase, oil prices rose on Friday on strong US employment data.