Bolstered by a weaker dollar, oil prices edged up on Tuesday, while markets watched President Donald Trump’s threats of higher U.S. tariffs on European nations over his desire to buy Greenland.
Brent futures rose 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $64.09 a barrel at 0430 GMT. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude contract for February, which expires on Tuesday, was up 14 cents, or 0.2%, to $59.58.
The more actively-traded WTI March contract gained 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $59.40. WTI contracts did not settle on Monday due to the U.S. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
“A weaker U.S. dollar provided some support to oil and the broader commodities complex,” an ING commodities strategist told Reuters on Tuesday. A weaker greenback makes dollar-denominated oil contracts cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Prices have held up relatively well amid a broader risk-off move in the markets, said ING, adding this followed the re-emergence of trade tensions between the U.S. and Europe over Trump’s Greenland demands.
Over the weekend, fears of a renewed trade war escalated after Trump said he would impose additional 10% levies from February 1 on goods imported from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Britain, rising to 25% on June 1 if no deal on Greenland was reached.
The oil market is also finding some support from the better-than-expected fourth-quarter Chinese gross domestic product data released on Monday, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told Reuters.
“This resilience in the world’s top oil importer provided a lift to demand sentiment,” he said.
China’s economy grew 5.0% last year, according to the data, meeting the government’s target by capturing a record share of global demand for goods to offset weak domestic consumption. That strategy blunted the impact of U.S. tariffs but is increasingly hard to sustain.
The country’s refinery throughput in 2025 also increased, rising 4.1% year-over-year, while crude oil output grew 1.5%, according to government data released on Monday. Both were at all-time highs.
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Markets are also keeping a close eye on Venezuela’s oil sector after Trump said the U.S. would run the industry following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
Vitol offered Venezuelan oil to Chinese buyers at discounts of about $5 per barrel to ICE Brent for April delivery, Reuters quoted multiple trade sources as saying.
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