Market News

(Bloomberg) -- Oil rose, recovering from the lowest closing level in 11 weeks, as President Donald Trump affirmed plans to impose tariffs on the two top suppliers of crude to the US.

Brent futures climbed above $73 a barrel, extending gains after Trump said the proposed levies on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on March 4, according to a post on the Truth Social platform.

Prices had settled on Wednesday at the lowest since Dec. 10, following conflicting announcements from the White House on the various trade levies under consideration. In his post on Thursday, the president also said that China will be charged an additional 10% tariff from March 4.

Still, crude is on track for its biggest monthly loss since September as the prospect of trade wars casts a pall over the outlooks for economic growth and energy demand in the US and China, the world’s two largest consumers.

“The jury is very much out on how the political and economic agenda of Donald Trump will impact growth,” said Tamas Varga, an analyst at brokers PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London. “Reciprocal tariffs, tax and spending cuts could elevate inflationary pressure and dent economic prosperity.”

At the same time, prices are drawing some support from dangers to global oil supplies.

Canada ships south about 4 million barrels a day to the US, and many American refineries were built for those barrels of heavy crude, not the light oil from shale fields.

Trump said he planned to revoke Chevron Corp.’s oil license to operate in Venezuela, threatening the nation’s recovery. Trading giant Trafigura Group flagged the prospect of tighter sanctions against Iran as the biggest upside risk. The OPEC+ producer group is considering delaying the restart of halted production.

But there are also tentative signs that barrels in some regions could begin to flow again.

OPEC member Iraq said that it had reached a pact with Kurdistan to resume crude exports through a pipeline shuttered for almost two years, without providing a time frame. An imminent restart of the link has been touted many times before without coming to fruition.

On Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will visit the US on Friday, President Trump said. That comes as the US makes headway on discussions to end the three-year war between Moscow and Kyiv, a potential shift that could spur a loosening of sanctions on Russian flows.