Oil Down For The Day But Up For The Week On Trump's Get Tough Policies

All eyes are now focused on tariffs coming into effect April 2: File Image/Pixabay

Washington's economic pressure on Venezuela and Iran contributed to a third straight week of gains for oil, but prices for daily trading dipped on Friday due to recession fears generated by next week's planned implementation of the White House's infamous reciprocal tariffs.

Brent settled down 40 cents at $73.63 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate settled down 56 cents at $69.36 per barrel.

U.S. president Donald Trump earlier this week announced a new 25 percent tariff on potential buyers of Venezuelan crude, and on Friday he warned Iran – which experts say is just weeks away from having the ability to build a nuclear weapon – that "bad things" would happen to the Islamic republic if it does not come to the table for nuclear negotiations.

Alex Hodes, analyst at StoneX, said, "If there are reductions in Venezuelan or Iranian crude oil barrels on the market, this would certainly be a bullish development."

Conversely, daily crude trading was subdued as Canada vowed to retaliate with tariffs against the U.S. if it falls under Washington's tariffs on April 2; and on Friday Trump emerged from a phone conversation with interim Canadian prime minister Mark Carney stating they had agreed to "begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship" immediately following Canada's federal election scheduled for April 28.

But despite the huge amount of media attention focused on Trump's tariffs, JPMorgan analysts told clients that high-frequency oil demand indicators have held up relatively well for now.

Indeed, Bloomberg noted another curious aspect of recent major geopolitical developments, that they have failed to sway crude prices to any great degree one way or another: WTI futures have been rangebound for the past eight months, trading between the high $60s and low $80s.

In other oil news on Friday, U.S. sanctions against Russia have resulted in China avoiding sanctioned vessels and shipments, and this in turn has caused the price of Russia's ESPO crude blend to slump to the lowest level since June 2024 and flip to a discount to the international benchmark.

According to sources who discussed the matter with Reuters, cargoes of ESPO for April loadings are now being traded at a discount of some $1.50 per barrel against ICE Brent on a delivered basis to China.