Oil Futures Advance as China Signals It’s Open to US Trade Talks

2 months ago 23

Mia Gindis and Alex Longley

Wed, Apr 16, 2025, 8:23 AM 2 min read

West Texas Intermediate futures added astir 2% to apical $62 a tube aft China signaled openness to commercialized negotiations with the Trump administration. Pre-conditions for the talks would see a much accordant US presumption and a willingness to code China’s concerns astir American sanctions and Taiwan, according to a idiosyncratic acquainted with the Chinese government’s thinking.

Elsewhere, Iran said it won’t beryllium drawn into negotiations with the US implicit its quality to enrich uranium, reducing the imaginable of looser restrictions connected Iranian crude.

“A spot of risk-on followed” the quality of China’s openness to talks, said Ole Hansen, caput of commodities strategy astatine Saxo Bank. “Overall, the marketplace seems to beryllium settling into a spot of a wait-and-see mode.”

Crude has recovered from a crisp driblet to adjacent the lowest successful 4 years brought astir by an onslaught of tariffs and counter-levies betwixt the US and its biggest trading partners. Washington connected Tuesday started a probe into the request for import taxes connected captious minerals, portion commercialized differences with the European Union persist arsenic White House officials said the bulk of the US tariffs imposed connected the bloc won’t beryllium removed.

Meanwhile, Iraq plans to chopped its lipid exports this period arsenic it faces increasing unit to adhere to its OPEC+ accumulation target. The state aims to trim shipments by 70,000 barrels a day, an authoritative with cognition of the substance said.

In different enactment for prices, US authorities information released Wednesday showed inventory levels astatine Cushing, Oklahoma — the transportation constituent for West Texas Intermediate — fell by astir 650,000 barrels to the lowest since 2008 for this clip of the year. Gasoline reserves besides dropped.

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