SYDNEY/SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell by more than 1 percent on Friday and were on track for their biggest monthly fall since November as trade conflicts spread and US crude output returned to record levels.
Front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $65.97 at 0639 GMT, down by 90 cents, or 1.4 percent, from last session’s close.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $55.92 per barrel, down 67 cents, or 1.2 percent, from their last settlement. WTI earlier marked its lowest since March 8 at $55.66 a barrel.
The drops mean that crude oil futures are on track for their biggest monthly loss since last November.
US President Donald Trump ramped up trade tensions globally by vowing to slap tariffs on all goods from Mexico, firing up fears over economic growth and appetite for oil.
The Mexico trade dispute adds to a trade war between the United States and China, which many analysts expect to trigger a recession.
“All is not well with the economic world, at least according to bond and commodity traders,” Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at futures brokerage CMC Markets in Australia, wrote in a note published on Friday.
“These (price) moves signal deteriorating sentiment about the outlook for global growth,” he said.
Crude prices have also been under pressure from a much smaller-than expected decline in US stockpiles and US crude oil production’s return to its record 12.3 million barrels per day.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US crude stocks fell by around 300,000 barrels last week, to 476.49 million barrels
That was much less than the 900,000-barrel decline analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and well below the 5.3 million-barrel drawdown the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Wednesday.
US investment bank Jefferies said on Friday that Brent had been falling “on the US-China trade war saga and US inventory builds with this week’s draw too small to impress the market.”
Meanwhile, top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has raised production in May, a Reuters survey found, but not by enough to compensate for lower Iranian exports which collapsed after the United States tightened the screws on Tehran.
Washington will sanction any country which buys oil from Iran after the expiration of waivers on May 2, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said on Thursday.
Oil drops 1%, set for biggest monthly fall since November as trade wars spreads
Oil drops 1%, set for biggest monthly fall since November as trade wars spreads
- US President Donald Trump ramped up trade tensions globally by vowing to slap tariffs on all goods from Mexico
- Crude prices have also been under pressure from a much smaller-than expected decline in US stockpiles
Multilateralism strained, but global cooperation adapting: WEF report
DUBAI: Overall levels of international cooperation have held steady in recent years, with smaller and more innovative partnerships emerging, often at regional and cross-regional levels, according to a World Economic Forum report.
The third edition of the Global Cooperation Barometer was launched on Thursday, ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos from Jan. 19 to 23.
“The takeaway of the Global Cooperation Barometer is that while multilateralism is under real strain, cooperation is not ending, it is adapting,” Ariel Kastner, head of geopolitical agenda and communications at WEF, told Arab News.
Developed alongside McKinsey & Company, the report uses 41 metrics to track global cooperation in five areas: Trade and capital; innovation and technology; climate and natural capital; health and wellness; and peace and security.
The pace of cooperation differs across sectors, with peace and security seeing the largest decline. Cooperation weakened across every tracked metric as conflicts intensified, military spending rose and multilateral mechanisms struggled to contain crises.
By contrast, climate and nature, alongside innovation and technology, recorded the strongest increases.
Rising finance flows and global supply chains supported record deployment of clean technologies, even as progress remained insufficient to meet global targets.
Despite tighter controls, cross-border data flows, IT services and digital connectivity continued to expand, underscoring the resilience of technology cooperation amid increasing restrictions.
The report found that collaboration in critical technologies is increasingly being channeled through smaller, aligned groupings rather than broad multilateral frameworks.
This reflects a broader shift, Kastner said, highlighting the trend toward “pragmatic forms of collaboration — at the regional level or among smaller groups of countries — that advance both shared priorities and national interests.”
“In the Gulf, for example, partnerships and investments with Asia, Europe and Africa in areas such as energy, technology and infrastructure, illustrate how focused collaboration can deliver results despite broader, global headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, health and wellness and trade and capital remained flat.
Health outcomes have so far held up following the pandemic, but sharp declines in development assistance are placing growing strain on lower- and middle-income countries.
In trade, cooperation remained above pre-pandemic levels, with goods volumes continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than the global economy, while services and selected capital flows showed stronger momentum.
The report also highlights the growing role of smaller, trade-dependent economies in sustaining global cooperation through initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, launched in September 2025 by the UAE, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland.
Looking ahead, maintaining open channels of communication will be critical, Kastner said.
“Crucially, the building block of cooperation in today’s more uncertain era is dialogue — parties can only identify areas of common ground by speaking with one another.”
