US stock futures rise and oil drops 8.5% after OPEC meeting postponed

Dow (INDU) futures gained 282 points, or around 1.4%. S&P 500 (SPX) futures were up 1.5% and Nasdaq (COMP) futures rose about 1.7%.

US crude, meanwhile, fell as much as 8.5% on Sunday to trade around $26 a barrel, and Brent crude — the global benchmark — also fell more than 6%.

The drop in oil comes after OPEC and Russia on Saturday postponed a meeting to discuss supply cuts and an end to the price war. The meeting had been set for Monday, but is now scheduled for Thursday, an OPEC source told CNN.
The meeting follows a suggestion by US President Donald Trump that massive production cuts could be on the way, and calls from Saudi Arabia for an “urgent” effort to restore “balance” to the oil market.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have been locked in an epic price war since early March when the OPEC+ oil alliance cracked, flooding the oil market with cheap crude, just as demand cratered because of the coronavirus pandemic. Crude has crashed to 18-year lows, crushing American oil companies and energy stocks.
The broader US stock market ended last week lower after a worse-than-expected jobs report for March. The US economy lost 701,000 jobs during the month — the worst report since 2009 and the first time in a decade the economy lost more jobs than it gained.

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