Brent pulls back from two-week on US-China tensions

Brent crude continued to fall as the US market opened on Monday, to extend its slide for the second straight day, and pullback from its 2-week high of continued profit-taking, amid tensions between the US and China about the origin of the coronavirus.

Brent crude fell 3.8% to $25.52 a barrel, after opening at $26.53 today, with a high of $26.53.

Brent July futures fell 0.5 % on Friday, after reaching earlier in the day a 2-week high of $27.86.

The international benchmark crude, Brent, gained 21% during the past week, posting its first weekly gain in a month, on hopes for improved global demand.

President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on China due to Beijing’s handling of the outbreak, which renewed market's fears about renwed tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Trump accused China of misleading the world about the magnitude and risk of the disease before it became a global pandemic, and added that he believes the novel coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.