Oil bounced slightly on Tuesday from huge falls in recent sessions; however, Brent crude stayed close to eight-month lows around $60 a barrel because of heightening trade strains between China and the United States.
Brent has lost over 9% in the prior week, with U.S. President Donald Trump declaring to impose new tariffs on Chinese items, and China making further strikes against U.S. agricultural freight.
The US responded to a drop in China’s yuan on Monday by branding the nation a currency manipulator.
Worldwide benchmark Brent futures LCOc1 have been up 28 cents at $60.09 a barrel by 0910 GMT, having dipped earlier within the session to their lowest since Jan. 14 at $59.07.
West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 futures surged 38 cents to $55.07 a barrel.
With global equities hitting a two-month low on Monday, Brent dropped over 3% that day as traders feared the conflict between the world’s two biggest oil patrons would depress demand, helping to indicate Tuesday’s short-covering.
In the meantime, Iran has threatened to dam all energy exports out of the Strait of Hormuz, via which a fifth of worldwide oil traffic passes, if it is unable to sell oil as guaranteed by a 2015 nuclear treaty in trade for controlling uranium enrichment.
Britain on Monday joined the USA in a maritime security mission in the Gulf to guard merchant ships after Iran captured a British-flagged tanker.
Oil prices could get some support later on Tuesday, with a poll exhibiting U.S. crude oil inventories were anticipated to have dropped for a straight eight weeks.
The American Petroleum Institute is set to reveal its weekly inventory information at 2030 GMT, with official government figures to follow on Wednesday.
