Oil climbed to a new three-month high as signs of improving demand buoyed a market momentarily roiled by confusion over U.S.-China trade.
Futures advanced 2% in New York after President Donald Trump said the deal with Beijing was “fully intact” following remarks from a trade adviser that were interpreted as an end to the agreement.
After earlier dropping 2.4%, the US grade crude WTI is now above $41 a barrel, bolstered in recent days by a lifting of lockdown restrictions in some U.S. states, while physical crude prices have also climbed.
Brent the international benchmark oil grade is near $44 a barrel, a level last reached as prices began to crash in April.
Oil has rebounded since plunging below zero in April and is now trading at levels last seen before Russia and Saudi Arabia engaged in a damaging, though short-lived, price war.
The kingdom’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said last week that OPEC+ is on course to rebalance the market, and some of the world’s largest traders are seeing a rapid recovery in demand.
“Looking at the strength of the physical market and recovering global oil demand, we think that the crude-oil price is still on its way higher,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB AB
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