{"id":20565,"date":"2025-04-11T03:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T03:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/?p=20565"},"modified":"2025-04-11T03:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T03:17:17","slug":"oil-slides-as-us-china-tariff-wars-escalate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/analysis\/oil-slides-as-us-china-tariff-wars-escalate\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil Slides as US-China Tariff Wars Escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2026\/03\/1_download-4-1-1024x559.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18354\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>WTI (CL-OIL-ECN)<\/strong> closes at <strong>$59.48<\/strong>, down 1.16%, after hitting an intraday high of <strong>$63.32<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Brent crude set to fall 4% this week<\/strong>, with WTI tracking a <strong>3.8% weekly loss<\/strong>\u2014both benchmarks down over <strong>11% last week<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>U.S. Energy Information Administration lowers <strong>global growth and oil demand forecasts<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Crude oil prices resumed their slide on Friday, setting up a second consecutive week of losses as escalating tensions between the <strong>U.S. and China<\/strong> reignited concerns about a <strong>global economic slowdown<\/strong> and shrinking <strong>crude consumption<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US-China trade tensions escalated again Thursday, sparking a new slide in stocks, bonds, the dollar and oil: Here\u2019s your Evening Briefing <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Yo4Nc4wVQa\">https:\/\/t.co\/Yo4Nc4wVQa<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bloomberg (@business) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/business\/status\/1910464239443067026?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The benchmark <strong>West Texas Intermediate (WTI)<\/strong> fell <strong>0.6% to $59.71<\/strong>, while <strong>Brent crude dropped 0.5% to $63.02<\/strong>. The downward trend follows a bruising Thursday session where both contracts lost over <strong>$2 per barrel<\/strong>, continuing a broader <strong>11% selloff from the prior week<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Demand Destruction in Focus as Growth Slows<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A growing chorus of warnings from analysts and policymakers paints a stark outlook. <strong>ANZ\u2019s Daniel Hynes<\/strong> warned that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/oil-prices-set-drop-second-week-us-china-trade-war-cut-demand-2025-04-11\/\">global oil consumption could fall by 1%<\/a><\/strong> if GDP growth drops below <strong>3%<\/strong>, a threshold that is increasingly under threat amid widespread tariff retaliation. The <strong>U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)<\/strong> echoed this concern, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.upstreamonline.com\/finance\/eia-drops-oil-price-projections-amid-tariff-war-supply-increases\/2-1-1806198\">cutting both global and U.S. oil demand forecasts<\/a><\/strong> for this year and the next in response to deteriorating macroeconomic indicators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>President Trump\u2019s move to raise tariffs on <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/04\/10\/politics\/trump-xi-china-tariffs\/index.html\">Chinese imports to 145%,<\/a><\/strong> despite a pause on other partners\u2019 duties, adds to the pessimism. <strong>China has responded with an 84% tariff on U.S. goods<\/strong>, intensifying the trade standoff between the world\u2019s two largest oil consumers. With trade volumes shrinking and <strong>supply chains disrupted<\/strong>, oil traders are quickly recalibrating for a scenario in which <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/04\/10\/china-trump-tariffs-live-updates.html\">demand erosion outweighs supply risks<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Technical and Market Outlook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>WTI chart (CL-OIL-ECN)<\/strong> highlights a sharp retracement after a rally that peaked at <strong>$63.32<\/strong>, now giving way to sustained selling pressure. The MACD (12,26,9) has clearly crossed into negative territory, while the price has dropped below the key moving averages (5, 10, 30), confirming a <strong>bearish structure<\/strong>. The low of <strong>$55.12<\/strong> from the previous day still looms as a possible near-term support if current weakness continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2026\/03\/image-13-1024x449.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20566\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Picture: Crude pulls back from session highs, eyeing support at $59. MACD shows momentum is fading fast, as seen on the <a href=\"https:\/\/vtmarketsapp.onelink.me\/CD7D\/240525WA\" title=\"\">VT Markets app<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technical rejection at <strong>$63.32<\/strong> caps the recent bullish attempt, while the current trading zone near <strong>$59.48<\/strong> suggests a potential retest of the <strong>$58\u2013$55 support band<\/strong>. The MACD histogram remains negative, indicating that <strong>momentum is still bearish<\/strong>, with no strong signs of reversal just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The market will now look to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opec.org\/opec_web\/en\/press_room\/314.htm\">next week&#8217;s OPEC+ commentary<\/a><\/strong>, <strong>Chinese industrial output data<\/strong>, and updates from U.S. refiners to determine if the pullback deepens or stabilises. Unless macro conditions shift dramatically, crude may struggle to find sustained upward momentum in the near term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/trade-now\/\">Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.vtmarkets.com\/login\">start trading<\/a>\u00a0now.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WTI and Brent crude extend their losing streak as U.S.\u2013China tariff escalation weighs heavily on global demand forecasts. &#8211; vtmarkets.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":18354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-20565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-oil"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}