WTI holds near $69.00, five-week highs, following Trump’s renewed threat to Russia

• WTI price hovers near five-week highs amid rising supply concerns.

• President Trump threatened to tighter deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

• The Fed is anticipated to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged in July.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Oil price steadies after registering gains in the previous two successive sessions, trading around $68.90 per barrel during the early European hours on Wednesday. Crude Oil prices hover around five-week highs amid rising supply concerns, driven by US President Donald Trump’s threat to tighter deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

President Trump said on Tuesday that he would impose secondary tariffs of 100% on Russia if it did not make progress on ending the war within 10 to 12 days, moving up from an earlier 50-day deadline. Moreover, the United States warned China, the largest buyer of Russian Oil, it could face huge tariffs if it kept buying, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a news conference in Stockholm, per Reuters.

Bessent also conveyed US concerns over China’s ongoing purchases of sanctioned Iranian Oil and its sale of more than $15 billion in dual-use technology to Russia, which has strengthened Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

Additionally, the US-EU trade deal, which has imposed a 15% import tariff on most European Union goods, helped avert a full-scale trade war between the two major allies that would have rippled across nearly a third of global trade and dampened the global Oil demand.

However, the Oil prices could face challenges after the API Weekly Crude Oil Stock showed a surprise 1.539 million-barrel build in US crude inventories, defying expectations of a 2.5 million-barrel decline.

Traders await the US Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate decision later in the day. The US Fed is widely expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.25% to 4.50% in July. Markets are now pricing in 97% odds of no change to interest rates at the July meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool.