OIL ON THE RISE DESPITE TRUMP’S MIXED SIGNALS

OIL ROSE AFTER four days of losses as President Donald Trump gave mixed signals on resolving the trade dispute between the US and China. Futures in New York increased as much as

1.3 percent after falling 4.8 percent over the previous four sessions. Trump struck a more conciliatory tone at the Group of Seven meeting in France, praising the willingness of China’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, to find a solution to the dispute. However, he didn’t indicate he planned to back down in the prolonged dispute. Equity markets retreated yesterday. “While de-escalation and the expectation of a temporary truce in the trade war may be what was lifting sentiment and oil prices this (yesterday) morning, the resolution of the US-China rift will take time,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas in London. “Economic uncertainty has not been lifted, which still leaves a fair degree of hesitancy in going long oil.” Crude is still down around 8 percent this month as the trade war weighs on the demand outlook for oil. The dispute has yielded little progress after more than two years of steady escalation, and countered the efforts by the Opec and its allies to boost prices by cutting production. | Bloomberg