Oil Prices Holding Steady After Tariff Threats

Tariffs against Canada and Mexico have been paused through the rest of this month, and if you believe that means the oil markets are quiet, you would be mistaken. Oil prices in early Monday action were trading slightly higher, but still in the $72 a barrel range. Patrick DeHaan with Gasbuddy.com says while there is concern the tariffs against Canada and Mexico will return, the more pressing concern is economic weakness in China.

“China has had issues with its real estate market as well, and China being one of the world's largest oil consumers what happens in their economy could directly impact their consumption of oil," DeHaan said. "And so, oil markets have been paying very close attention to the slowdown in the Chinese economy to see if Chinese authorities can, and will, take any action to potentially stimulate the economy.”

That economic stimulation, DeHaan noted, remains an open-ended question that investors will be watching for some time. DeHaan added just because oil prices aren’t moving higher, doesn’t mean the price at your local station won’t be moving up in the coming days.

"We are starting to see refineries, especially on the West Coast, enter their maintenance. There was also a refinery fire at a refinery in Southern California that has pushed up the price of diesel and gasoline, so refined products are seeing an impact. As I mentioned, we are getting into the seasonal time of year that refiners do that seasonal maintenance work ahead of the start of the summer driving season. So, refined product prices have been drifting a bit higher in the last week.”

How is the Russia/Ukraine war impacting oil prices, and will that change anytime soon? Find out by listening to our entire Price at the Pump podcast:

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