Thursday, the last trading day before the July 4th holiday in the U.S. brought a slight decline in crude oil prices and it was largely blamed on concerns that U.S. tariffs might slow energy demand.
The President’s 90-day pause on higher tariffs comes to an end on July 9 and some large trading partners, according to Reuters, have yet to finalize trade deals including Japan and the European Union.
Brent crude futures fell 31 cents or 0.45% and closed at $68.80 a barrel.
The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude finished Thursday down 45 cents for a fall of 0.67% and settled at $67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oklahoma energy stocks were mixed in Thursday’s trading with about half recording gains for the day and the remainder experiencing losses.
Empire Petroleum Corporation had the largest percentage improvement at more than 5%. Those firms with losses had declines of less than 1%.