Oil futures slide on U.S. tariff fears

while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 26 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to settle at US$61.25.

For the week, Brent was down about four per cent and WTI down more than three per cent.

The premium of the Brent front-month contract over WTI briefly fell to its lowest since August before edging up by the market close.

“Tariffs brought concerns that economic growth will be unable to boost demand,” said Gene McGillian, director of market research at Tradition Energy. Crude prices remained under pressure from concerns U.S. production may be high enough to offset output cuts from OPEC and Russia, he said.

On Wednesday, the government reported that U.S. crude stocks rose faster than expected while gasoline inventories posted a surprisingly large increase.

“We are being driven by the pickup in U.S. inventories and in general terms the market went a bit too far, too soon,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.

“Then we have the volatility in the U.S. dollar and the implications of the tariff news to factor in,” he said.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets for a dinner on Monday in Houston with U.S. shale firms, the latest sign of the producer group widening talks about how best to tame a global oil glut.

U.S. crude output slipped in the last month of 2017, but in November hit an all-time high of 10.057 million barrels per day. Weekly data showed another record and further gains are expected. The New York Stock Exchange. Crude slid along with equities again early on Friday, but rebounded with U.S. stocks as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq moved positive.