Brent Crashes Below $60 as U.S.-China Tariff War Escalates

Oil prices plunged early on Wednesday as China retaliated to the U.S. tariff of 104% on Chinese goods, and Brent Crude sank to below $60 per barrel for the first time in four years. As of 8:31 a.m. EDT, the front-month Brent Crude futures prices were plummeting by 5.25% at $59.46. The U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, plunged by 5.59% to $56.09, close to the $55 per barrel mark. That level is already $10 a barrel below the average $65 per barrel price U.S. producers need to profitably drill a new well, as they indicated in the Dallas Fed Energy…