HOUSTON: Oil prices were little changed on Friday after falling more than 1 percent in the previous session as traders digested the impact of higher US tariffs that may curtail economic activity and lower global fuel demand growth.
Brent crude futures were down 7 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $71.63 a barrel at 9:56 a.m. Saudi time. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down 10 cents, or 0.14 percent, to $69.16 a barrel.
Still, Brent prices are set to gain 4.9 percent for the week while WTI is set to climb 6.4 percent after US President Donald Trump earlier this week threatened to place tariffs on buyers of Russian crude, particularly China and India, to try to pressure Russia into halting its war against Ukraine.
“We think the resolution of trade deals to the satisfaction of the market – more or less, barring a few exceptions – has been the key driver for oil price bullishness in recent days, and further progress on trade talks with China in future could be a further confidence booster for the oil market,” said Suvro Sarkar, energy sector team lead at DBS bank.
On Friday though, investors were more focused on Trump’s imposition of new, and mostly higher, tariff rates on US trading partners set to go into effect from August 1.
