Oil reverses loss after China's yuan fix soothes investor nerves

Brent crude fell $2.08, or 3.36%, to settle at $59.81 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 97 cents, or 1.74%, to settle at $54.69 a barrel, finding some support from a draw in inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub and delivery hub for WTI.

TOKYO: Oil reversed a decline as China’s central bank set the yuan fixing stronger than expected, calming investors after the U.S. escalated the trade war by labeling the Asian nation a currency manipulator.

Futures in New York rose as much as 0.9% after being down as much as 1.8% earlier. China’s currency fixing was weaker than 7 per dollar, suggesting officials want to slow the pace of declines in the yuan. The U.S. Treasury Department made the manipulator determination Monday after Beijing allowed the yuan to weaken to the lowest level in more than a decade.