Oil Achieves 7-Week as Trade Talk Buzzes

Oil prices rose to a seven-week high on Wednesday as markets assessed the outcome of U.S.-China trade negotiations, while pessimism over U.S.-Iran nuclear talks also provided support.Brent crude futures were up 82 cents, or 1.2%, to $67.69 U.S. a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 96 cents, or 1.5%, to $65.94 U.S.U.S. and Chinese officials agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and resolve China’s export restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday at the conclusion of two days of intense negotiations in London. The two countries are the world’s largest economies and oil consumers.Trade-related downside risk in oil has been temporarily removed, although the market reaction has been tepid as it is not clear how economic growth and global oil demand will be affected.Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was less confident that Iran would agree to stop uranium enrichment in a nuclear deal with Washington, according to an interview released on Wednesday.For its part, Iran threatened to strike U.S. bases in the Middle East if nuclear negotiations fail and conflict arises with the United States.On the supply side, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, plans to increase oil production by 411,000 barrels per day in July as it looks to unwind production cuts for a fourth straight month.Later on Wednesday, markets will be focusing on the weekly U.S. oil inventories report from the Energy Information Administration.U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 370,000 barrels last week, according to market sources who cited American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.