(Investing) – Oil prices rose Friday, heading for weekly gains on optimism over a potential deescalation in U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
At 08:40 ET (12:40 GMT), rose 1.9% to $64.05 a barrel, while rose 2.1% to $61.17 a barrel.
On the week, both contracts were on track to rise more than 4%.
Oil buoyed by U.S. trade cheer
Oil’s gains were an extension of an over 3% rally from Thursday, as markets cheered U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a trade deal with the U.K..
While the U.K. trade deal by itself has limited economic implications, traders were seen holding out hope that it would invite many more trade deals in the coming months.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration had “dozens” of trade deals lined up for the coming month.
Risk sentiment was also encouraged by Trump stating that he could lower his 145% tariffs on China, especially if talks scheduled to take place over the weekend go well. The president posted in his social media account on Friday that an 80% tariff “seems right.”
Chinese economy holding up
Meanwhile Chinese exports rose faster than expected in April while imports narrowed their decline, customs data showed on Friday, giving Beijing some relief ahead of tariff talks.
Customs data on Friday showed outbound shipments from China rose 8.1% year-on-year in April, beating forecasts for an 1.9% increase, while imports fell 0.2%, compared with expectations for a 5.9% drop, suggesting domestic demand may be holding up better than expected as policymakers continue to take steps to prop up the $19 trillion economy, the world’s largest crude importer.
The country’s crude oil imports in April dipped from the previous month but were up 7.5% year on year, buoyed by stockpiling by state refiners during maintenance outages.
Oil still near four-year lows
Despite this week’s gains, oil prices still remained close to four-year lows amid heightened economic uncertainty and its impact on crude demand. Recent production hikes by the OPEC+ also dented prices.
Sentiment was also rattled by increased geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, as the nuclear armed neighbors engaged in their worst fighting in decades. Elsewhere, Trump called for an immediate Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, amid little progress in peace talks. Still, a Russian-led three-day ceasefire is set to begin this week.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
