Investing.com - Oil prices were higher on Tuesday as upbeat comments from the United States and China kept alive hopes that the world's two largest economies will soon reach an agreement to at least partially resolve their trade war.
West Texas Intermediate crude was 29 cents higher at $58.3 a barrel by 8:57 AM ET (13:37 GMT), having risen 0.4% on Monday.
Brent crude futures were up 30 cents at $62.88 after rising 0.4% in the previous session.
Top trade negotiators from China and the U.S. held a phone call on Tuesday morning, China's Commerce Ministry said, as the two sides try to hammer out a preliminary "phase one" deal in a trade war that has dragged on for 16 months.
“Oil prices tend to be strongly correlated to trade news flows," said Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist at AxiTrader. "Optimism over (a) trade deal remains supportive for prices."
The Chinese state-backed Global Times newspaper on its Twitter feed on Monday the two countries are very close to a "phase one" trade deal but noted that Washington and Beijing had not agreed on specifics or the size of rollbacks of tariffs on Chinese goods.
Beijing's insistence that Washington roll back the Trump administration's tariffs has been a major sticking point.
On the supply side, energy traders were looking ahead to weekly inventory reports from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group and the Energy Information Administration.
The API is scheduled to release its data for the latest week at 4:30 PM EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday, and the weekly EIA report is due at 10:30 AM ET on Wednesday.
--Reuters contributed to this report