Oil hovers around $60 as Us-china trade tensions weigh

LONDON: Oil prices rebounded slightly on Tuesday from big falls in recent sessions, but Brent crude remained near sevenmonth lows around $60 a barrel due to escalating trade tensions between China and the United States.

Brent prices have lost more than 9 per cent in the past week, with US President Donald Trump vowing to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports, and China making further moves against US agricultural cargoes.

International benchmark Brent futures LCOC1 were up 28 cents at $60.09 a barrel by 0910 GMT, having dipped earlier in the session to their lowest since January 14 at $59.07.

West Texas Intermediate crude CLC1 futures rose 38 cents to $55.07 per barrel.

With global equities hitting a two-month low on Monday, Brent fell more than 3 per cent that day as traders worried the dispute between the world’s two biggest oil buyers would dent demand, helping to prompt Tuesday’s shortcovering.

“It’s difficult for oil to hold (up) when you have such moves in equities,” Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob said.

“Brent at $60 a barrel is an important support level. It would be difficult for Brent to collapse below this level unless there is a further collapse in equities.” Meanwhile, Iran has threatened to block all energy exports out of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil traffic passes, if it is unable to sell oil as promised by a 2015 nuclear deal in exchange for curbing uranium enrichment. — Reuters