SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices rose on Monday after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a huge stimulus package.
Brent crude futures for May rose 96 cents to $65.38 per barrel by 0641 GMT. The April contract expired on Friday.
U.S. Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped 93 cents to $62.43 a barrel.
Front-month prices for both contracts touched 13-month highs last week, slipping back on Friday along with wider financial markets following a bond rout amid inflation fears, Reuters reported.
“Oil prices are recovering this morning in line with most risk assets on the back of the U.S. stimulus bill passing the House,” Reuters quoted Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi, as saying.
The U.S. House passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package early on Saturday, lifting investors’ risk appetite and Asian stock markets.
The package will now move to the U.S. Senate for further deliberation.
The approval of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 shot also buoyed the economic outlook, according to Reuters.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, will meet on Thursday and could discuss allowing as much as 1.5 million barrels per day of crude back in the market.
“We think if the combined [OPEC+] increase does not exceed 500,000 bpd, that will be bullish for prices,” analysts at Singapore’s OCBC bank said.
