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U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $2.28, or 3.7%, to settle at $60.07 per barrel. Brent crude futures fell $2.15, or 3.3%, to $63.33 a barrel. Both contracts had gained more than $2 a barrel on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump paused the heavy tariffs he had announced against dozens of U.S. trading partners a week ago, marking an abrupt U-turn less than 24 hours after the levies took effect.

U.S. stocks on Thursday are giving back much of their historic gains from the day before as Wall Street weighs a global trade war that has cooled in temperature but is still confusing and threatening the economy. The S&P 500 was down 4.1% in midday trading, a day after surging 9.5% following President Donald Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide. Economists said the data wasn’t very useful because it offered a view only of the past, when inflation may rise in coming months because of tariffs.

U.S. inflation declined last month as the cost of gas, airline fares, and hotel rooms fell, a sign that price growth was cooling even as President Donald Trump ramped up his tariff threats. Consumer prices rose just 2.4% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday, down from 2.8% in February. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.8% compared with a year ago, down from 3.1% in February.

(Reuters) -U.S. shale firm Occidental Petroleum said on Wednesday the prices it received for oil and gas production during the first quarter were higher than in the preceding three months. Benchmark Brent crude prices averaged $74.98 a barrel during the first quarter, up 1.3% from the prior quarter, while U.S. natural gas prices jumped 30%, helped by higher demand from a cold winter in the country. Last week, industry bellwether Exxon Mobil also signaled higher oil and gas prices and stronger refining margins would help lift its earnings by roughly $900 million.

In March, the U.S. Treasury Department gave U.S. oil producer Chevron and other foreign partners and customers of PDVSA until May 27 to wind-down operations and cease oil exports from Venezuela. Days later, Washington imposed tariffs on buyers of Venezuela's oil and gas.

(Reuters) -Federal Reserve policymakers worry U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policy could deal a blow to economic growth, but are signaling they will not be quick to ride to the rescue with interest rate cuts because they expect higher tariffs to boost inflation. The minutes of the U.S. central bank's mid-March meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that Fed officials already felt they were operating in a thickening cloud of uncertainty that had the potential to slow consumer spending and business investment and also called for a cautious approach on rate-setting. That was before Trump's April 2 announcement of sweeping tariffs triggered a global stock market rout on fears of recession and a sharp rise in Treasury yields that raised alarm bells about potential financial market instability.

(Bloomberg) -- Oil prices surged for the first time since US President Donald Trump launched a trade war against most of America’s trading partners as some countries won a brief reprieve on Wednesday. Global benchmark Brent crude advanced above $65 a barrel after plunging for four sessions and slipping below $60 for the first time since 2021. West Texas Intermediate climbed to above $61. Trump announced a 90-day pause on higher reciprocal tariffs that hit dozens of trade partners after midnight.