Welcome to Monday and if you were hoping for a reprieve from the edicts or anticipation of them from the US President you will be sorely disappointed. In a reveal to the press gaggle aboard Air Force One, Donald Trump seemed to put to bed the idea of limited sanctions this week by saying all countries would be covered by punitive trade measures.
Yesterday’s price action in oil was a stifled affair albeit with a bullish bias. The April 2 implementation of tariffs against Venezuelan oil supply and the further future squeezing of the Iranian oil sector keeps a rally that is now three-weeks old. It remains uncertain as to how tariffs on Canadian and Mexico will play out in the longer-term, but the increased US refinery runs which resulted in draws in inventory complete the current positive picture.
The buoyant move up in stock prices over the last two weeks was based on the perception of lenient US trade measures. These perceptions produced a sharp U-turn yesterday as President Trump announced the imposition of 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars and car parts effective April 2. The panicky sentiment in the US stock markets from observed last night spills over to global equities this morning.
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