Oil prices continued their free fall on Friday as the market absorbed a double whammy of shocks after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs and the Opec+ alliance decided to massively increase crude production.
The price of Brent, the international benchmark, has dropped more than 11 percent in two days, plunging from $74 per barrel at the beginning of this week to about $66 per barrel. The drop has put crude prices at their lowest levels since 2021.
The sell-off shows how Trump’s trade war is already unleashing secondary effects on the Middle East.
Agreed - actually came here to say this. The Saudis have been pretty blatant in how they time their pricing manipulation to American politics and economic trends. Like how oil prices stayed high even after COVID killed demand while Biden was in office, or how they flooded the market to try and kill the American fracking industry after Trump was elected the first time.
Trump may have asked for this. I guess we’ll know how the relationship is going if they reduce production in the future. 😂