Crude prices spiked more than two per cent on Thursday after Donald Trump said he would hit two Russian oil companies with hefty sanctions, while talk that the White House was planning curbs on software exports to China added to gloom on markets.
Both main oil contracts jumped almost three per cent – having climbed more than two per cent on Tuesday – on news of the measures after the US leader said Ukraine peace efforts with counterpart Vladimir Putin “don’t go anywhere”.
The move was joined by another round of punishments by the European Union as part of attempts to pressure Moscow to end its three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine.
Trump decided on the sanctions after plans for a fresh summit with Putin in Budapest collapsed this week.
“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,” the US president said in response to a question from an AFP journalist in the Oval Office.
