Oil Prices Continue To Fall As OPEC+ Plans To Increase Output
Oil futures fell on Tuesday, extending losses seen in the previous session after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies said they would go ahead with plans to lift some output curbs in April.
Concerns over the economic outlook also weighed on crude prices as U.S. tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China took effect and investors braced for retaliation.
Price movements
-- West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery CL.1 CLJ25 fell 96 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $67.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
-- Brent crude for May delivery BRN00 BRNK25, the global benchmark, fell $1.19, or 1.7%, to settle at $70.43 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Market movers
OPEC+ members said Monday they would go ahead with plans to increase output from April 1 by gradually phasing out voluntary production cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day.
"The market has been pricing in the possibility that the group will delay increasing supply," Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey, commodity strategists at ING, said in a note. "This development does not change our view on the market, as we already expected supply to return."
Along with supply dynamics, there are growing concerns about the level of demand amid uncertainty about tariffs, the strategists said.
In retaliation, China announced Tuesday that it would impose additional tariffs of up to 15% on imports of key U.S. agricultural products, including chicken, pork, soybeans and beef, and expand controls on doing business with U.S. companies. Canada is also preparing to impose retaliatory tariffs.
- The Associated Press contributed to this article. - William Watts
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Source: Dow Jones Newswires
