Oil slides to two-month low over demand anxiety

Bloomberg

Oil slid to a two-month low as escalating US-China trade tensions imperiled global growth at a time when American crude inventories are swelling.
Futures declined as much as 2.6 percent in New York on Tuesday. The US is preparing another round of tariffs on Chinese imports if talks between the presidents of the world’s two largest econo-mies falter. Meanwhile, oil stowed in American storage tanks probably expanded for a sixth week, extending the longest streak of increases since early 2017, according to a Bloomberg survey.
“Trade tensions with China have impacted demand,” said Phil Streible, senior market strategist at RJ O’Brien Associates LLC. Crude has retreated about 10 percent as threats to worldwide demand overwhelmed concerns about supply disruptions in Iran and Venezuela. “Investors have become wary of the global economic outlook,” said Jens Naervig Pedersen, senior analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Saudi Arabia has pledged to raise output, and together with rising US stocks, it has eased supply concerns in the market.”
US officials are preparing a new tariff list which would apply to Chinese products that aren’t already covered in lieu of next month’s meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires.