Oil Roulette: Prices Rebound Jolted by Russia-US Talks

Oil prices bounced back on Tuesday morning after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to discuss stabilising prices.

WTI Crude jumped over six percent to $21.31 per barrel while Brent gained 2.27 percent to $27.02 on Tuesday morning. Crude had slumped to an 18-year low on Monday as the coronavirus shutdown destroyed demand.

Oil markets have faced a double whammy from the coronavirus outbreak and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia after Opec and other producers failed to agree on deeper cuts to support oil prices in early March.

Trump and Putin agreed during a phone call on Monday to have their top energy officials discuss stabilising oil markets, the Kremlin said on Monday.

“President Trump called President Putin to discuss oil. Presumably, in an attempt to get Russia to pull up a chair to the negotiating table with Saudi Arabia or maybe even loosening sanctions on Russia,” said Stephen Innes, market strategist at AxiTrader.