Oil prices opened with some losses on Monday due to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs increase on Chinese goods ahead of the U.S. scheduled talks with China this week.
At the start of the year, Trump threatened to increase the tariffs, but the U.S. postponed that decision after China and the U.S. agreed to sit down for trade talks.
However, on Sunday Trump announced that tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, which had an original tariff rate of 10%, would more than double to 25% on Friday.
International benchmark Brent crude traded at $69.74 per barrel, while American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) amounted to $60.45 at 06.56 GMT on Monday.
On Friday, oil prices opened with some gains to recover from a sudden dive on Thursday, caused by an unexpected increase in U.S. crude oil inventories and with crude production hitting an all-time high.
Brent crude plummeted 2.5% on Thursday to close at $70.34 per barrel, but recovered by 0.22% to trade at $70.50 a barrel at 0630 GMT on Friday. WTI was at $61.75 per barrel at the same time early Friday.
Meanwhile, the number of U.S. oil rigs increased to 807 for the week ending May 3, up by two over the previous week, according to data released by oilfield services company Baker Hughes on Friday. Despite this increase, oil prices rose on Friday on strong U.S. employment data.
