By Dipo Olowookere
The renewed trade tensions between the United States and China continued to take its toll on the prices of crude oil in the global market.
Late Tuesday, the Brent crude oil was sold at $78.80 per barrel amid rising fears of a trade war between two leading economies in the world.
On Monday, President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on about $200 billion in Chinese goods and threatened to add hundreds of billions more, while China retaliated with $60 billion tariffs.
With this in sight, investors cannot put their eyes off the potential effect this would have on prices of oil at the global market.
As at the time of filing this report, the Brent oil was down by 0.29 percent or 23 cents, while the while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures depreciated by 0.27 percent of 19 cents to settle at $69.66 per barrel.
Commenting on the developments at the market, an analyst at Price Futures Group, Phil Flynn, stated that, “The uncertainty surrounding the trade war is definitely something the market is concerned about in the short-term.”
Also, President of Ritterbusch and Associates, Jim Ritterbusch, noted that, “We believe that the full effect of the Iranian oil sanctions has yet to be seen and we feel that the next 5-6 week anticipatory phase of the official sanctions will associate with steady speculative buying interest.”
Sanctions affecting Iran’s petroleum sector will come into force from November 4, 2018 and Iranian crude oil export loadings have declined by 580,000 barrels per day in the past three months, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said in a note to clients.
Modupe Gbadeyanka