On Tuesday, global oil prices skyrocketed amid China's data on exports and imports.

Thus, Brent futures for June delivery added 0.43% to settle at $63.55 per barrel, whereas WTI May futures jumped by 0.42% to $59.95 per barrel.

Yesterday, investors were estimating macroeconomic reports from China, one of largest oil importers. According to the recent data, in the previous month, China's exports advanced by 30.6% on a yearly basis, whereas imports grew by 38.1%. In comparison with the preliminary estimates, exports rose less than expected. At the same time, the imports reading significantly exceeded the flash data. Interestingly, from January to March 2021, China's exports surged by 49% compared to the same period in the previous year.

Recently, investors have been concerned about significant volatility in the oil market that is mainly caused by uncertainties over oil demand. On the one hand, high paces of vaccination campaigns in the US and Europe support oil prices. The fact is that the faster people receive their doses, the sooner all restrictions will be lifted. For example, in Germany, 12 million jabs were made that is 25% more than last week.

On the other hand, the rising number of new virus cases in the world slows down the global economic revival. India reported on 168 thousand new virus cases on Monday, taking the second place in this rating. The first place is still occupied by the US. The recent data unveiled that around 42% of all infected people in the world live in five US states such as New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Notably, oil began gaining in value on the first day of the week. Yesterday, oil futures closed with a significant advance amid the news about the attack of Yemeni Houthi rebels on Saudi oil facilities.

It is obvious that Middle East tensions pose some risks, thus pushing oil prices higher from the levels hit during the previous week.

Jerome Powell's speech also had a positive effect on oil futures. The Fed Chairman said that the US was going through the most important recovery stage. The US economic revival could become even more confident in the next few months.

Such an announcement made ahead of the car travel season gave hopes for mounting demand and alleviated concerns about the increasing number of new COVID-19 cases.

As a result, on Monday, WTI futures for May delivery jumped by 0.6% to $59.70 per barrel.

At the same time, Brent futures for June delivery added 0.5% to trade at $63.28 per barrel. Since April 1, it is the highest futures price.

Curiously, WTI and Brent futures closed the previous week with a decline of 3.5% and 2.9% respectively.