US-China new tensions

Last Wednesday, Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido was pushed into a political emergency.  The reason was that he proclaimed himself the legitimate interim leader of the country, urging world governments to acknowledge him as Venezuela's interim president. This drove Maduro to cut connections with the U.S. and command all American diplomatic staff to leave the country in 72 hours. Now the U.S. penalties on Venezuela's oil firm will make the country to exchange its energy stocks with big discounts to buyers such as India and China.

After the U.S on Tuesday forced sanctions on Venezuelan PDVSA a state-owned oil firm in a move initiated to critically restrict the OPEC member's crude exports to the United States.

International Brent crude oil futures were at $60.00 per barrel, about 0.2 percent. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.10 per barrel, from their last close. The U.S. Treasury said on Monday "As a result of today's action, all property and interests of PDVSA subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”