08:52 AM EDT, 04/07/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices fell early on Monday to the lowest since April 2021 on the continuing market turmoil that followed U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose widespread tariffs on the country's trading partners.

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was last seen down US$1.75 to US$60.24 per barrel while June Brent crude fell US$1.72 to US$63.86.

Oil prices were already down 20% following Trump's April 2 'Liberation Day' announcement of hefty levies on most U.S. trading partners that has sent stock markets plunging around the world on expectations the tariffs will slow global growth and raise inflation. OPEC+'s Thursday decision to speed the return of voluntary production cuts by adding 411,000 barrels per day to the market next month is also speeding the drop.

The plunge in oil and wider markets has investment banks lowering their growth expectations, with Reuters on Monday reporting Goldman Sachs is forecasting a 45% chance the U.S. economy will fall into a recession. The investment bank cut its 2026 price forecasts for oil by US$4.00 per barrel and now sees West Texas Intermediate averaging US$55.00 next year, after just lowering its forecast on Friday to US$59.00.

The threat of falling demand from slowing economies was met last week with OPEC+'s decision to boost production even as output from Western Hemisphere producers is on the rise, which is being seen as reining in cartel members that have been exceeding quotas.

"Whether or not it was OPEC+ intention to hide its revised output hike behind the melee caused by President Trump's sweep of tariffs across the board of trade, be they for salient partners or not so, is conjecture, but it has not worked. The timing is frankly amazing, although there has been an inevitability to this action because trying to hold the oil price for the benefit of [non-OPEC] members, losing market share and being undermined by the cheating actions of the same renegades needs a response," PVM Oil Associates said in a Friday note.

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