Crude oil futures traded higher on Tuesday morning following the US President’s latest plans to impose tariffs on imported commodities such as steel, aluminium, and copper.

At 9.51 am on Tuesday, April Brent oil futures were at $76.41, up by 0.30 per cent, and March crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $73.38 up by 0.29 per cent.

February crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,355 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹6,300, up by 0.87 per cent, and March futures were trading at ₹6,319 against the previous close of ₹6,267, up by 0.83 per cent.

Speaking at a congressional Republican event in Miami on Monday, the US President, Donald Trump, said he wants to impose tariffs on imported commodities such as steel, aluminium and copper, and on goods such as computer chips, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals. The move is aimed at boosting the production of these products in the US.

Comparing his approach to the former President, William McKinley, who imposed stiff tariffs in the 1890s, Trump said: “It’s time for the US to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before.”

In their Commodities Feed for Tuesday, Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy of ING Think, and Ewa Manthey, Commodities Strategist, said oil prices came under pressure on Monday with the market and the broader complex unable to escape the sell-off seen in equity markets. Tariff headlines will also not be helping sentiment with reports that President Trump will place tariffs on steel, aluminium and copper imports, they said.

Quoting the Financial Times reports, they said the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, is pushing for a universal import tariff of 2.5 per cent, which will be raised gradually.

Despite the recent weakness in the oil market, the West Asian market continues to show relative strength with its unusual premium to Brent widening to more than $2 a barrel. “While the West Asian market has been strengthening since late last year, it is since the US sanctions against Russia that we have seen a much more meaningful move, with buyers of Russian oil looking for alternatives. Although oddly, despite sanctions on a large part of the Russian shadow fleet, tanker rates have been weakening more recently,” they said in their Commodities Feed.

February natural gas futures were trading at ₹280.70 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹279.70, up by 0.36 per cent.

On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), April kapas contracts were trading at ₹1,469 in the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹1,476, down by 0.47 per cent.

February cottonseed oilcake futures were trading at ₹2,681 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Tuesday against the previous close of ₹2,686, down by 0.19 per cent.

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