Trump tweet dents oil rally

Oil prices retreated on Friday, after a recent string of gains that propelled the commodity to a multi-year high.

Oil’s retreat came after Trump took to Twitter to say that oil prices are artificially “very high” and that that will not be accepted.

His tweet comes on the back of a Reuters report that suggested Saudi Arabia would be happy to see much higher oil prices to support the valuation of state oil company Aramco before it sells a minority state in the corporation in an initial public offering.

Friday, oil prices declined by about 1%. Earlier in the week, both Brent crude oil (the European benchmark), and West Texas Intermediate crude oil (the American benchmark) hit their highest levels since late 2014.

Oil prices have recovered from their recent price collapse as the OPEC-led supply cuts and stronger demand have worked off the supply glut.