The price of WTI crude oil dropped more than 7% on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs blitzed markets and OPEC+ threw an unexpected production curveball.
At 10:38 a.m. in New York, Brent crude was trading at $70.21—a 6.32% slide—while WTI sat at $66.80, down nearly 7%. The double whammy came as OPEC+ dropped a surprise output hike and Trump lit a fresh round of tariffs aimed at leveling the playing field with other countries.
Eight OPEC+ nations announced Thursday they’ll raise output by 411,000 bpd in May—triple the anticipated monthly increase. The move, described as a response to “healthy market fundamentals,” is part of a broader unwind of 2.2 million bpd in cuts that began this month.
Still, traders weren’t expecting this much this soon, and prices show it.
The production news alone may have dinged oil a couple of bucks, but it was Trump’s tariff fireworks that made the loudest bang. Markets reeled after the White House slapped new levies on foreign goods, with the S&P 500 down over 4% intraday. While billed as a push for fairer trade, investors worried it might knock global demand off balance—especially for crude.
Still, this isn’t full-blown panic. OPEC+ reminded everyone that these hikes are subject to change, with the usual backdoor option to pause or reverse if the market sours. They also committed to offset any overproduction since January and will reconvene on May 5 to talk June levels.
Crude oil prices are getting smacked around today, but given the market’s hair-trigger temperament lately, this may just be a temporary case of geopolitical whiplash rather than a full-blown reversal.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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