Oil trades are fluctuating recently following the agreement of Trump’s Phase One trade deal in the US-China trade war. While the trade was up on Friday, recent updates show that it falls.
Crude oil prices have been down again since Monday. This contradicts the escalation of price in Friday induced by the partial trade deal which will not impose additional 5% tariffs on Chinese products for the time being.
However, many analysts begin to be skeptical again as the main issue of the trade war was off the talks. Furthermore, China’s demand to inquire another round of talks adds up to the growing skepticism.
“Past experience is that U.S.–China trade agreements aren’t worth the paper they are written on, and this one hasn’t even been written down. For now, though, indications on trade are a little more positive. If that persists, it could help put a floor under sliding global growth,” Tom Orlik and Yelena Shulyatyeva of Bloomberg Economics stated.
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An Attack on Iranian Oil Ship
Another major news pertaining to oil trades is pertinent to the attack on Iranian oil ship. Iranian oil tanker, Sabiti, was sailing at the Red Sea.
In response to the attack, Iran has yet to provide much details. The country prefers to wait for the investigations and rigorously examine the case.
“Iran is avoiding haste, carefully examining what has happened and probing facts,” said Ali Rabiei, Minister of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare.
Currently, investigations are to determine the cause, motive, and weapon of the attacks. If the tanker happened to be hit by a missile, a tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran could escalate.
In the past, Saudi’s oil facility was bombed. Many parties have suspected Iran to be the mastermind of the attack. Iran did not approve the allegations.
Pertaining to the day of the attack, Saudi confirmed that there was a distress message. However, the kingdom could not manage to save the tanker for, despite the distress message, it kept moving and switched off its transponder.
Surprisingly, the attack did not cause decline or fluctuation. In contrast, it added up to the Friday price escalating, along with the ‘false’ trade deal rumor.
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