Oil jumps 4% after Trump pauses tariffs on many countries, raises China levy
Oil prices climbed more than 4% on Wednesday, bouncing back from four-year lows earlier in the session, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would further increase tariffs on China but pause the tariffs he announced last week for most other countries.
Trump authorized a 90-day pause and raised the tariff rate for China to 125%, effective immediately. The previously announced 104% tariff on China kicked in earlier on Wednesday.
Brent futures settled up $2.66, or 4.23%, to $65.48 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures closed $2.77, or 4.65%, higher at $62.35.
Both contracts had lost about 7% earlier in the session before the reversal.
China announced additional tariffs on U.S. goods, imposing an 84% tariff on U.S. goods from Thursday.
Countermeasures in Canada, a major U.S. trading partner, also took effect on Wednesday.
Countries in the European Union agreed on Wednesday to impose 25% tariffs on a range of U.S. imports in a first round of countermeasures.
A decision last week by the OPEC+ group of producers to raise output in May by 411,000 barrels per day, which analysts say is likely to push the market into surplus, limited oil's gains.
In the U.S., crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels to 442.3 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4-million-barrel rise.
Source : Reuters
