Oil prices bounce 3pc after plummeting on Trump’s tariff plan
Oil prices rallied nearly 3 percent on Friday, a partial rebound from their biggest daily drop in several years on US President Donald Trump’s promise to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports.
The tariffs, due to take effect on Sept. 1, intensify the trade war between the world’s top two economies and oil consumers. Any resulting economic slowdown could hurt crude demand.
Benchmark Brent crude was up $1.74, or 2.9 percent, to $62.24 a barrel by 10:42 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT). Brent slid more than 7 percent on Thursday, the steepest daily drop in more than three years.
The US crude benchmark gained $1.25, or 2.3 percent, to $55.20 a barrel, a day after tumbling nearly 8 percent, the biggest loss in more than four years.
Before the slide, crude futures had seen a fragile rally supported by steady drawdowns in US inventories but pressured by a shaky global demand outlook.
“We’re obviously coming back pretty substantially at least in the early going because I think people realize that the market was overdone with the selloff yesterday,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
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