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Oil prices drop with most Asian markets closed for holidays

Published: 05 May. 2025, 18:24

The OPEC logo is seen in this illustration. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Oil prices fell Monday after the OPEC-plus group of oil-producing nations said it plans to increase output.

U.S. benchmark crude oil sank $1.72, or 3 percent, to $56.57 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, lost $1.66 to $59.63 per barrel.

During the weekend, the OPEC-plus group of eight nations announced it will raise its output by 411,000 barrels per day as of June 1, stepping up production increases.

The group said strong fundamentals were behind the decision, though analysts also speculated that it might reflect a desire to curry favor with U.S. President Donald Trump before he makes a visit to the Middle East later this month.

Prices have fallen nearly 20 percent in the past three months as traders have factored in the likely impact of Trump's trade policies on the global economy. Trump has made delivering lower gas prices one of his talking points.

“Washington wants cheap energy, and Gulf producers still lean on U.S. security guarantees; the White House bears down, they listen,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“In that sense, the U.S. president has become an unofficial swing vote inside OPEC-plus,” he said.

U.S. crude oil is down about 17 percent for the year. According to AAA, gasoline is selling for an average of about $3.17 per gallon, down from $3.66 per gallon a year ago.

But prices are falling to a point where many producers can no longer turn a profit.

In stock trading, markets were closed in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo Seoul and India. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 1 percent to 8,157.8, while Taiwan's Taiex declined 1.2 percent.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 144.33 Japanese yen from 144.71 yen.

The euro climbed to $1.1325 from 1.1306.

On Friday, Wall Street extended its gains to a ninth straight day, the market’s longest winning streak since 2004. It has reclaimed much of the ground it lost after Trump escalated his trade war in early April.

The rally was spurred by a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market and revived hopes that Washington will tone down its trade tensions with China.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.5 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.5 percent.

The S&P 500 is still down 3.3 percent so far this year, and 7.4 percent below the record it reached in February.

The gains were broad. Roughly 90 percent of stocks and every sector in the S&P 500 advanced. Technology stocks led the way. Microsoft rose 2.3 percent and Nvidia rose 2.5 percent. Apple, however, fell 3.7 percent after the iPhone maker estimated that Trump's tariffs will cost it $900 million.

Banks and other financial companies also made solid gains. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.3 percent and Visa closed 1.5 percent higher.

Employers added 177,000 jobs in April. That marks a slowdown in hiring from March, but it was solidly better than economists anticipated. Jobs are being closely watched for signs of stress amid trade war tensions.

Strong employment has helped fuel solid consumer spending and economic growth over the last few years. Economists are now worried about the impact that taxes on imports will have on consumers and businesses, especially about how higher costs will hurt hiring and spending.

The economy is already showing signs of strain. The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3 percent annual pace during the first quarter of the year. It was slowed by a surge in imports as businesses tried to get ahead of Trump’s tariffs.

Companies have been cutting and withdrawing financial forecasts because of the uncertainty over how much tariffs will cost them and how much they will squeeze consumers and sap spending.

AP