Crude Oil Prices Settle Lower on Concerns Trade War May Hurt Demand

Investing.com – WTI crude oil prices settled lower Thursday on worries the escalating U.S.-China trade war may hurt global crude demand.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange for September delivery fell 13 cents to settle at $66.81 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, fell 0.19% to trade at $72.16 barrel.

In what was a rocky session for oil prices, investors continued to fret about the impact of a trade war between the U.S. and China ahead of Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods, which come into effect Aug. 23, and threaten demand for oil-derived fuels.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce slapped a 25% tariff on an additional $16 billion worth of U.S. products on Wednesday. In a surprise move, however, the ministry removed U.S. crude from the list of goods subject to the levy, but included oil products.

“Some traders swooped in and picked up oil as it is relatively cheap today, but there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding its prospects,” said David Madden at CMC Markets.

“The Energy Information Administration report yesterday, pointed to a fall in U.S. demand,” Madden said. .”Traders are also concerned about China’s demand, given the country is locked in a trade spat with the U.S.”

Oil prices are on track to post a loss for the week after suffering their biggest one-day drop in more than three weeks Wednesday on the back of data showing a smaller-than-expected draw in U.S. crude supplies and rising product inventories.

Inventories of U.S. crude fell by 1.351 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 3, missing expectations for of 2.800 million barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

The smaller-than-expected draw in crude supplies came as imports rose by about 2.64 million barrels a day (bpd) and exports rose by 5.40 million bpd, data from EIA showed.

Oil-market observers will likely turn to the Baker Hughes rig count data Friday for signs that U.S. output continues to tighten after data on Wednesday, showed U.S. oil output fell to 10.8 million barrels a day last week.

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