Oil gains on fresh hopes for U.S.-China trade talks

Oil prices rose on Monday as positive noises from Washington over the weekend rekindled hopes in global markets that the United States and China could soon sign an interim deal to end their bitter trade war. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 18 cents, or 0.31% to $57.95 a barrel by 0626 GMT, having ended last week little changed after tracking ups and downs in the trade talks process.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $63.66, up 27 cents or 0.43%, the benchmark having also finished little changed last week. “It is still all about trade talks,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. “It seems to be dominating markets action at the moment.” Monday’s higher opening prices came after U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Saturday that an initial trade agreement with China is still possible by the end of the year.

This came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed a desire to sign an initial trade deal and defuse a 16-month tariff war that has lowered global growth – though Trump said he had yet to decide whether he wanted to finalize a deal while Xi said he would not be afraid to retaliate when necessary. Over the weekend, the city’s democrats won a landslide and symbolic majority in district council elections. A potential supply cut by OPEC+ of three more months to mid-2020 when they meet over Dec. 5-6 could also push prices up. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Dec. 5 at its headquarters in Vienna, followed by talks with a group of other oil producers, lead by Russia, known as OPEC+.