Oil starts new year higher on trade optimism, Middle East tensions - Reuters:
Oil prices kicked off the new year higher on Thursday as warming trade relations between the United States and China eased demand concerns, while rising tensions in the Middle East fueled worries about supply.
Global benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1, rose 35 cents, or 0.5%, to 66.35 a barrel by 0738 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was up 25 cents, or 0.4%, at $61.31 per barrel.
Oil markets were closed on Wednesday for New Year’s Day.
Both benchmarks ended higher in 2019, posting their biggest annual gains since 2016, buoyed at the end of the year by a thaw in the prolonged trade dispute between the United States and China - the world’s two largest economies - and a deeper output cut pledged by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies.
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