Oil gains after U.S.-China trade deal, fall in inventories - Reuters

Oil gains after U.S.-China trade deal, fall in inventories - Reuters:

Oil prices rose on Thursday buoyed by the long-anticipated signing of an initial Sino-U.S. trade deal that sets the stage for a jump in Chinese purchases of American energy products, while U.S. crude inventories fell more than expected.

Brent LCOc1 was 30 cents, or 0.5%, higher at $64.30 a barrel by 0754 GMT, while U.S. crude was up by 30 cents, or 0.5%, at $58.11 a barrel.

Under the so-called Phase 1 deal to call a truce in a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, China committed to buying over $50 billion more of U.S. oil, liquefied natural gas and other energy products over two years.

“It was a formal signing of something which had already been agreed, but that has certainly boosted sentiment,” said Virendra Chauhan, oil analyst at Energy Aspects.