Gold gains on dollar weakness, safe-haven demand

Gold prices gained more than 2% on Monday, driven by a weaker dollar and safe-haven demand, while the market awaits a policy decision from the US Federal Reserve later in the week.

Spot gold was up 2.3% at USD 3,315.09 an ounce at 1:52 p.m. ET (1752 GMT).

US gold futures settled 2.4% higher at USD 3,322.3.

The dollar index fell 0.1%, making bullion less expensive for other currency holders.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas, reigniting concerns about the potential fallout of a global trade war.

“We are seeing a continued flow of safe-haven demand, keeping gold prices elevated … prices are going to trade above USD 3,000 level at least in the near-term,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals.

“I don’t think any change in interest rates is expected at this meeting, but we’ll be watching it to see if the Fed is leaning any particular way.”

Traders await Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments due on Wednesday to get clues on the central bank’s rate path. The Fed has held its policy rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range since December.

The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged this meeting, but it may be the last where the outcome is so cut and dry with Trump’s tariffs casting a shadow of uncertainty over the economic outlook.

Gold, which is considered a hedge against uncertainty and tends to thrive in a low interest rate environment, has hit multiple record highs and gained over 26% so far this year.

Goldman Sachs expects gold to continue outperforming silver, but noted that, given the strong correlation in flows, renewed demand for gold in 2025 was likely to boost silver prices too.

Spot silver rose 1% to USD 32.31 an ounce.

Meanwhile, platinum fell 0.4% to USD 956.05 and palladium shed 1.5% to USD 939.55.

(Reporting by Sarah Qureshi and Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

Dollar slides against peers, weighed down by fresh tariff worries

NEW YORK – The US dollar weakened against major currencies, including the yen and the euro, on Monday as markets weighed continued uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and their impact on the economy.

The greenback slid to a fresh record low against the Taiwan dollar to 28.8150 amid speculation that Taiwan was letting its currency appreciate as part of a trade deal with the US, or at least was unwilling to intervene to stop it rising alongside sharp inflows in capital.

Other Asian-Pacific currencies, including the Australian dollar, gained against the US dollar. The Aussie reached as high as USD 0.64935, its highest since December last year.

The selloff of the dollar against Asian currencies is partly driven by the unwinding of large, un-hedged positions taken by some investors such as life insurance companies in Taiwan amid talk of more US tariffs, said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex.

“The dollar sold off in Asia partly because some people are worried there’d be semiconductor tariffs by the US to be announced as early as Wednesday and talk that in these bilateral trade talks the US could transfer currency appreciation in East Asia,” Chandler said.

Trump doubled down on tariff-driven policies during an interview on Sunday, reiterating that the duties on US imports would eventually make Americans rich. He announced on Sunday a new 100% tariff on films made outside the US

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday defended Trump’s tariffs, emphasizing that his broader agenda including tax cuts would eventually lead to long-term economic growth.

Markets have been affected by the fact that Trump is not leaving his stance that tariffs are important, said Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex USA in Washington.

The dollar was down 0.73% against the Japanese yen at 143.885. Against the Swiss franc, the dollar weakened 0.50% to 0.82255.

Trump said he would not attempt to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but repeated calls for lower interest rates and called Powell a “stiff”. The Fed meets on Wednesday and is widely expected to leave rates steady following a solid March payrolls report.

Perez said the US dollar was being hurt the most by chaos in the markets.

“I think we’re returning today to…this very sour mood and descent and this idea that overall you may not necessarily rely on American markets the way you used to. And that’s been seen across Treasuries.”

Markets now imply only a 37% chance of a Fed rate cut in June, down from 64% a month ago. Goldman Sachs and Barclays both shifted their cut calls to July from June.

The dollar trimmed its losses briefly against the yen after the Institute for Supply Management report for April showed a larger-than-expected pickup in growth in the US services sector, which accounts for two-thirds of the American economy.

Chinese onshore markets were closed but the yuan traded offshore hit its highest in almost six months at 7.1831 per dollar as investors wagered Beijing might let its currency strengthen as part of trade talks with Washington. The yuan was last up 0.12% to 7.2014 per dollar.

In Europe, the euro was up 0.15% at USD 1.131600 and the pound was up 0.21% at USD 1.32950.

The Bank of England will meet on Thursday and is widely expected to cut rates by a further 25 basis points to 4.25%. Central banks in Norway and Sweden also meet this week and are expected to keep rates steady.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York, Wayne Cole, and Alun John. Editing by Sonali Paul, Mark Potter, Tomasz Janowski, Nia Williams, and Marguerita Choy)

US yields drift higher after stronger-than-expected services sector data

NEW YORK – US Treasury yields edged higher on Monday, after data showed that the services sector in the world’s largest economy remained resilient last month, with prices paid, an inflation gauge, hitting a two-year high.

Volume was lighter than usual, with financial markets closed in the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Before the data, US yields were mixed with very little movement. The benchmark 10-year yield was last up 1.9 basis points (bps) at 4.339%. On the short end of the curve, the two-year yield was marginally higher at 3.843%. It was trading lower before the data.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday its nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) increased to 51.6 last month from 50.8 in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the services PMI dipping to 50.2.

The survey’s measure of prices paid for services inputs jumped to 65.1, the highest reading since January 2023 and followed 60.9 in March.

“The increase in the prices-paid component in April doesn’t exactly line up with the featured survey responses, which indicate more uncertainty than actual price increases,” wrote Will Compernolle, macro strategist at FHN Financial in Chicago.

“Despite the uncertainty, the prices-paid component jumped, and is a solid leading indicator of CPI inflation. Bond yields rose in reaction to the ISM Services print partially due to the stronger-than-expected headline index, but also because higher prices paid means the Fed is more likely to remain on the sidelines for longer,” Compernolle wrote.

The US yield curve steepened following the data, with the spread between two-year and 10-year yields at 50 bps, compared with 48.4 bps late on Friday.

The current curve is described as a “bear steepener,” in which long-term interest rates are rising more quickly than those on the short end. This often happens when inflation expectations pick up. In the current easing cycle, the market is expecting the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates unchanged at the next few meetings and not cut them, as inflation firms.

“The question on bond investors’ minds is: are we going to see the tariff shock show up on hard data?,” said Stan Shipley, managing director and fixed income strategist at Evercore ISI. “We are now coming up to a period where higher tariffs are going to influence consumer prices in May and June. We’re getting closer to that.”

Outside of the ISM data impact, the market overall struggled for direction ahead of crucial auctions this week that could once again test demand for US government debt.

The US Treasury will auction USD 58 billion in three-year notes later on Monday, USD 42 billion in 10-year notes on Tuesday, and USD 25 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday. Of the three auctions, investors are focused more on the US 10-year note sale as they remain on the lookout for signs of diminishing demand for Treasuries.

“Our expectations are that the (10-year) auction will be well sponsored by both domestic and overseas participants, as we maintain that it is still too early in the trade war to expect a meaningful rotation away from Treasuries as a reserve asset – at least not on the part of official money,” wrote Ian Lyngen, managing director and head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital in a research note.

Monday’s generally lackluster trading also comes ahead of a two-day monetary policy meeting at the Federal Reserve, which is expected to hold interest rates steady in the 4.25%-4.50% range. A solid US nonfarm payrolls report for April released last Friday also gave the Fed some breathing room to stay patient with interest rates.

The benchmark federal funds futures market has priced in a more than 70% chance that the US central bank will resume cutting rates at the July policy meeting, LSEG calculations showed. Overall, the market expects about 77 bps of easing this year.

In other maturities, US 30-year bond yields were up 2.6 bps at 4.822%.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Will Dunham)

Oil drops more than USD 2/bbl as OPEC+ accelerates output hikes

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell more than USD 2 a barrel in early Asian trade on Monday as OPEC+ is set to further speed up oil output hikes, spurring concerns about more supply.

Brent crude futures dropped USD 2.04 a barrel, or 3.33%, to USD 59.25 a barrel by 2240 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at USD 56.19 a barrel, down USD 2.10, or 3.60%.

Both contracts touched their lowest since April 9 at Monday’s open after OPEC+ agreed to accelerate oil production hikes for a second consecutive month, raising output in June by 411,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The June increase from the eight will take the total combined hikes for April, May and June to 960,000 bpd, representing a 44% unwinding of the 2.2 million bpd of various cuts agreed on since 2022, according to Reuters calculations.

“The May 3 OPEC+ decision to raise production quotas another 411,000 bpd for June adds to the market expectation that the global supply/demand balance is moving to a surplus,” Tim Evans, founder of Evans on Energy said in a note.

The group could fully unwind its voluntary cuts by the end of October if members do not improve compliance with their production quotas, OPEC+ sources told Reuters.

OPEC+ sources have said Saudi Arabia is pushing OPEC+ to accelerate the unwinding of earlier output cuts to punish fellow members Iraq and Kazakhstan for poor compliance with their production quotas.

Barclays lowered its Brent forecast by USD 4 to USD 66 a barrel for 2025 and by USD 2 to USD 60 a barrel for 2026 because of the accelerated phase-out by OPEC+, analyst Amarpreet Singh said in a note.

Meanwhile, tensions flared in the Middle East after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against Iran for the Tehran-backed Houthi group firing a missile that landed near Israel’s main airport.

Iran’s Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said on Sunday that Tehran would strike back if the United States or Israel attacked.

(Reporting by Florence Tan; editing by Diane Craft and Chris Reese)

Trump says he wants a fair trade deal with China

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – US President Donald Trump on Sunday said the US was meeting with many countries, including China, on trade deals, and his main priority with China was to secure a fair trade deal.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had no plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, but US officials were speaking with Chinese officials about a variety of different things.

Asked if any trade agreements would be announced this week, Trump said that could “very well be” but gave no details.

Trump’s top officials have engaged in a flurry of meetings with trading partners since the president on April 2 imposed a 10% tariff on most countries, along with higher tariff rates for many trading partners that were then suspended for 90 days. He has also imposed 25% tariffs on autos, steel, and aluminum, 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 145% tariffs on China.

He suggested that he did not expect to reach an agreement with some countries, but could instead be “setting a certain tariff” for those trading partners in the next two to three weeks. It was not immediately clear if he was referring to the reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2, which are due to kick in on July 8 after a 90-day pause.

Trump repeated his claim that China had been “ripping us for many years” on global trade, adding that former President Richard Nixon’s move to reach out and establish relations with China was “the worst thing” he ever did.

Trump sounded more upbeat about China and the prospects for reaching an agreement in an interview with NBC News that was taped on Friday and broadcast on Sunday.

In the interview, he acknowledged that he had been “very tough with China,” essentially cutting off trade between the world’s top two economies, but said Beijing now wanted to reach an agreement.

“We’ve gone cold turkey,” he said. “That means we’re not losing a trillion dollars … because we’re not doing business with them right now. And they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal very badly. We’ll see how that all turns out, but it’s got to be a fair deal.”

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward; Editing by Kim Coghill and Himani Sarkar)

Week Ahead: Fed, BoE decisions and trade talks rule

Rate decisions in the US and UK lead event risk this week, while talks between the US and its major trading partners remain in focus, along with hopes of a cooling in Sino-US trade tensions.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 4.25-4.50% on Wednesday, with markets pricing over 90% chance of no change amid uncertainty on the economic impact of US tariffs. The Fed statement and press conference will be key for markets.

US data begins with the final reading of S&P composite and services PMIs, then ISM services PMI, the trade balance, and weekly jobless claims. Fed officials John Williams, Austan Goolsbee, and Beth Hammack are due to speak.

The Bank of England is expected to cut rates a further 25 basis points to 4.25% on Thursday, according to all 67 economists polled, as the economy softens. The BoE monetary policy report and summary will be closely watched.

Monday is a UK holiday. Industrial and manufacturing production, the NIESR monthly GDP tracker, S&P construction PMI, and final readings of services and composite PMIs are the significant data releases. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey and MPC member Huw Pill speak on Friday.

It is a low-key week in Japan with holidays on Monday and Tuesday. The data releases are limited to final services and composite PMIs, household spending, and overtime pay. The Bank of Japan’s March meeting minutes are due on Thursday.

The euro zone has retail sales and final PMI readings, while Germany has factory orders, industrial output, and trade. The central banks of Sweden and Norway announce their rate decisions on Thursday.

China has a holiday on Monday. Caixin April services PMI is due Tuesday, but the key releases are April trade and inflation data on Friday and Saturday, which are likely to reveal how the trade war is darkening the economic outlook further. Bank lending data may be released.

Canada publishes trade and employment data. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem discusses the Financial Stability Report at a press conference on Thursday.

New Zealand has Q1 employment data and the central bank’s bi-annual Financial Stability Report on Wednesday. Australia has no major data due.

(Andrew Spencer and Krishna Kumar are Reuters market analysts. The views expressed are their own. Editing by Sonali Desai)

Dollar gets limited lift from jobs, trade questions linger

SYDNEY – The dollar was struggling to hold its ground on Monday even as concerns about a US recession eased just a little, while investors awaited actual evidence of a thaw in Sino-US trade relations, as opposed to just hints from officials.

The solid March payrolls report had offered the dollar support by lengthening the odds on a Federal Reserve rate cut in June, and making it more likely the central bank will lean hawkish at its policy meeting this week.

“The labor report leaves little doubt that the FOMC will keep rates on hold this week, and the bar for cutting is now even higher for June,” said Michael Feroli, head of US economics at JPMorgan.

“In a period of high uncertainty, with two-sided risks to the dual mandate, the Fed Committee will prefer to remain patient until there is more clarity in the outlook.”

Markets now imply only a 37% chance of a Fed cut in June, down from 64% a month ago. Goldman Sachs and Barclays both shifted their cut calls to July from June.

Yet it was notable that the dollar had only gotten a limited lift from the jobs data and was having trouble keeping the gains, with turnover in Asia thinned by holidays in Japan and China.

The euro edged up 0.2% to USD 1.1324, and away from last week’s low at USD 1.1266, while the dollar index dipped 0.2% to 99.857.

The dollar also eased 0.2% to 144.63 yen, and away from Friday’s top around 145.91.

Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato walked back comments that seemed to suggest Japan might threaten to sell some of its Treasury holdings as part of trade negotiations with the White House, which are due to continue this week.

WAITING ON CHINA

Speculation that the Trump administration was pressuring Asian countries to strengthen their currencies versus the dollar saw the Taiwanese dollar surge more than 5% last Friday.

While the Chinese Commerce Ministry has indicated Beijing was evaluating an offer from Washington to hold talks over Trump’s 145% tariffs, the two sides still seem far apart.

In a TV interview aired on Sunday, President Donald Trump reiterated that he believed China wanted to do a deal, but offered no details or timeline.

Trump did say he would not attempt to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but also repeated calls for lower interest rates and called the Chair a “stiff”.

The abrupt swings in US policy combined with pressure on the Fed’s independence have shaken investor trust in the dollar, which was still clearly evident in positioning.

Many investors are still wagering on further dollar weakness, with speculative short positions rising further in the latest week, though that also leaves the market vulnerable to a squeeze on any bullish news.

The next hurdle for the dollar will be the ISM survey of services due later on Monday, with a risk a weak reading would revive worries about an economic downturn.

For sterling, the major test this week will be a Bank of England meeting on Thursday where it is widely expected to cut rates a further 25 basis points to 4.25%, and perhaps signal faster easing ahead.

“The reaction in UK gilts and GBP will come from the guidance and whether the door is sufficiently opened for a back-to-back cut at the June meeting, and whether there is the appetite expressed in the statement to ease the bank rate to 3.50% by December,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

Central banks in Norway and Sweden also meet this week and are expected to keep rates steady.

Down Under, the Australian dollar hardly reacted to Saturday’s election, which saw the Labour party’s Anthony Albanese claim a historic second term as prime minister. The Aussie was steady at USD 0.6441, having hit a five-month high on Friday as a solid US jobs report boosted risk appetite globally.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

Wall Street stocks buoyed by strong economic data, possible US-China trade talks

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks advanced on Friday, notching the second straight week of gains, helped by strong economic data and potential easing of trade tensions between the US and China.

The US economy added 177,000 jobs in April, exceeding expectations, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. The data helped to assuage concerns of an economic slowdown following a Commerce Department report, showing a contraction in US gross domestic product for the first time in three years, weighed down by a tariff-induced flood of imports.

“The stock market is cheering this morning’s payroll report, but I have to point out that job growth did slow on the month, and I haven’t seen too many comments about that,” said Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group.

“I was a bit surprised because I was expecting a sharper slowdown given that non-farm payroll survey happened the week after the tariffs were announced. So I think the market is taking this in a positive light.”

Beijing said on Friday it was evaluating an offer from Washington to hold talks over President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs, which he had imposed on Chinese imports.

The tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two largest economies have kept investors on edge, with both sides unwilling to be seen backing down in a trade war that has roiled global markets.

Still, Trump’s reversal of some tariffs has helped US stock indexes recover from recent losses. The S&P 500 has erased the slump set off by Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2, with the index now up 0.3% since the close of April 2. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was trading at levels last seen before April 2.

The S&P 500 also reached its ninth consecutive session of gains, matching a winning streak from 2004, while the Dow hit a nine-day winning streak for the first since December 2023. For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2.9%, the Dow climbed 3%, and the Nasdaq added 3.43%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 564.47 points, or 1.39%, to 41,317.43, the S&P 500 gained 82.54 points, or 1.47%, to 5,686.68, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 266.99 points, or 1.51%, to 17,977.73.

“I do think what today is saying is that the economy is a lot stronger than people thought and a lot more resilient in the face of all of these tariffs and fears about tariffs,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital in New York.

Apple fell nearly 4% after the iPhone maker trimmed its share buyback program by USD 10 billion and CEO Tim Cook told analysts that tariffs could add about USD 900 million in costs this quarter.

Other so-called Magnificent Seven stocks, such as Meta Platform, rose 4.3%, and Nvidia gained 2.6%. Amazon dipped 0.1%.

Chevron rose 1.6% and ExxonMobil gained 0.4% after both energy giants reported quarterly results.

Block slumped 20% after cutting its profit forecast for 2025 and missing estimates for quarterly earnings.

Video game maker Take-Two Interactive fell nearly 7% after it delayed the release of “Grand Theft Auto VI” to May 2026.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.81-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 144 new highs and 47 new lows on the NYSE.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 51 new highs and 38 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 15.99 billion shares, compared with the 19.3 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Aurora Ellis)

Oil ends at four-year lows as OPEC+ accelerates output hikes

NEW YORK/LONDON – Oil fell by more than USD 1 a barrel on Monday to settle at over four-year lows as an OPEC+ decision to expedite its output hikes stoked fears about rising global supply at a time when the demand outlook is uncertain.

Brent crude futures settled at USD 60.23 a barrel, down USD 1.06, or 1.7%. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell USD 1.16, or 2%, to end at USD 57.13 a barrel. Both benchmarks settled at their lowest since February 2021.

Last week, Brent shed 8.3% and WTI lost 7.5% after Saudi Arabia signaled it could cope with a prolonged lower price environment. That offset optimism on the demand side that US-China tariff talks could occur, Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.

On Saturday, OPEC+ agreed to further speed up oil production hikes for a second consecutive month, raising output in June by 411,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The June increase by eight participants in the OPEC+ group, which includes allies like Russia, will take the total combined hikes for April, May and June to 960,000 bpd. That represents a 44% unwinding of the 2.2 million bpd of various cuts agreed on since 2022, according to Reuters calculations.

“For the producers outside of the OPEC+ group, which is now nearly 60% of global oil supply, the market share gains may have reached a peak if these new barrels are fed into the market and prices move lower,” said Peter McNally, a Third Bridge analyst.

The group could fully unwind its voluntary cuts by the end of October if members do not improve compliance with their production quotas, OPEC+ sources told Reuters.

OPEC+ sources have said Saudi Arabia is pushing OPEC+ to speed up the unwinding of earlier output cuts to punish fellow members Iraq and Kazakhstan for poor compliance with their production quotas.

“The production increase, instigated by Saudi Arabia, is as much about challenging US shale supply as it is to penalize members that have benefited from higher prices while flouting their production limits,” Saxo Bank’s Hansen said.

ING and Barclays have also lowered their Brent crude forecasts following the OPEC+ decision.

Barclays reduced its Brent forecast by USD 4 to USD 66 a barrel for 2025 and by USD 2 to USD 60 for 2026, while ING expects Brent to average USD 65 this year, down from USD 70 previously.

“Expectations of mounting global oil inventories in the coming months given the demand deterioration expected off of the Trump tariffs is tending to accentuate bearish supply-side news,” Jim Ritterbusch, of US energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.

Widespread recession fears and weak refined fuel import demand are also weighing on oil prices, said David Wech, chief economist at Vortexa, adding that since mid-February the data analytics firm had noted an approximate 150 million-barrel build in global crude stocks in onshore tanks and on tankers at sea.

Oil below USD 50 a barrel could hurt final investment decisions for offshore projects, Girish Saligram, CEO of oilfield services company Weatherford International, said at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

“If we see prices sustain below USD 50 a barrel, I think it could create a little bit of a lull for some of the new final investment decisions,” Saligram said.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Robert Harvey in London, Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by David Gregorio and Marguerita Choy)

Oil up 2% as Trump threatens new sanctions on Iran

HOUSTON – Oil prices settled nearly 2% higher on Thursday after US President Donald Trump threatened secondary sanctions on Iran after a fourth round of US-Iran talks was postponed.

Brent crude futures settled at USD 62.13 a barrel, up USD 1.07, 1.8%, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures closed USD 1.03, or 1.8%, higher at USD 59.24 a barrel.

Trump said all purchases of Iranian oil or petrochemical products must stop and any country or person buying any from the country would be immediately subject to secondary sanctions.

His comments follow the postponement of talks. which had been due to take place in Rome on Saturday, over Iran’s nuclear program. A senior Iranian official told Reuters a new date will be set depending on the US approach.

“If the Trump administration is successful in enforcing secondary sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil that could lead to a reduction in supply of about a million and a half, barrels per day,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

“These low prices of oil are giving the Trump administration cover to more strictly enforce those sanctions, especially at a time that OPEC+ is producing well over their quota and looking to increase production.”

Several OPEC+ members are set to suggest the group accelerates output hikes in June for a second consecutive month, three people familiar with OPEC+ talks have said. Eight OPEC+ countries will meet on May 5 to decide a June output plan.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is telling allies and industry experts that it is unwilling to prop up the oil market with supply cuts and can manage a prolonged period of low prices, sources told Reuters.

On the demand side, however, the US economy contracted for the first time in three years in the first quarter, data showed on Wednesday, swamped by a flood of imports as businesses raced to avoid higher costs from tariffs and underscoring the disruptive impact of Trump’s unpredictable trade policy.

Trump’s tariffs have made it probable the global economy will slip into recession this year, a Reuters poll suggested.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi, Editing by Marguerita Choy and Susan Fenton)

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