Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Crude Oil Rises Most in 2 Weeks as Concerns Over Trade War Ease — Futures jumped as much as 2.5 percent in New York as equities rose and the dollar dipped, boosting oil’s appeal. While President Donald Trump predicted China will be first to buckle in the tug of war, his top economic adviser said the countries are holding “back-channel discussions” to resolve the dispute.
“We’ve got the U.S. dollar taking a bit of a correction,” said Bart Melek, head of global commodity strategy at TD Securities in Toronto. At the same time, “I get the feeling that the narrative is going to shift here with the trade situation, where I think people are trying to walk back some of the more aggressive rhetoric that we’ve seen.”
Crude climbed the most in more than two weeks as concerns eased that the U.S. and China will engage in all-out trade war.
Worries over the exchange of punitive tariffs between the U.S. and China added to concerns that oil is piling up at storage tanks in America’s biggest crude distribution hub in Oklahoma, and that production from shale fields is on a relentless rise to record levels. That led futures to dip below $62 last week, after touching a high of more than $66 the week before.
West Texas Intermediate for May delivery climbed $1.25 to $63.31 at 12:04 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent for June settlement rose $1.31 to $68.42 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark crude traded at a $5.07 premium to June WTI.
Dollar Spot Index declined for a second session, bolstering the appeal of commodities like oil as a store of value. The S&P 500 Index climbed as much as 1.6 percent.
Prices are rising amid “the realization that maybe the trade war isn’t going to kill energy demand anytime in the near future,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago. “More than anything, oil prices are following the stock market back higher.”
Other oil-market news:
⭐ Gasoline futures rose 1.1 percent to $1.9754 a gallon on Monday.
⭐ Stockpiles in Cushing, Oklahoma, increased 2 million barrels last week, according to a forecast compiled.
⭐ Saudi Arabia signaled its intent to expand chemical production along the U.S. Gulf Coast and potentially double the size of North America’s biggest oil refinery.
⭐ Canada’s oil-sands industry suffered a major blow as Kinder Morgan Inc. halted most work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
