08:49 AM EDT, 05/29/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices held steady early on Thursday as investors moved to add risk after a court blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs, though rising supply checked optimism.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for July delivery was last seen unchanged at US$61.84 per barrel, while July Brent crude was also steady at US$64.90.

The rise comes after the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday ruled Trump exceeded his authority by imposing high tariffs on most of the country's trading partners using emergency powers. Levies on steel, aluminum and cars remain in place.

Global stock markets were broadly higher following the ruling, while futures point to a much stronger open for U.S. exchanges on a calming outlook for global trade flows. However hopes the calm will boost oil demand are being checked by rising supply, with OPEC+ expected to add a third 411,000-barrel monthly tranche of production hikes in July.

"While the laundry list of non-fundamental factors facing the oil complex this year seems to be growing in perpetuity, the path of least resistance is still pointing lower in a market overwhelmingly being governed by supply-side dynamics. The normalization of OPEC spare capacity, non-OPEC supply growth, and a volatile demand picture have moved most of our conversations to a "when" not "if" in terms of lower oil prices this year," Brian Leisen, Global Oil Strategist at RBC Capital Markets, noted.

However a report showed an unexpected drop in U.S. inventories last week, offering support for the commodity. In its weekly survey, the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday said U.S oil stocks fell by 4.24-million barrels last week, while the consensus estimate among analysts polled by Oilprice.com expects stocks to rise by one-million barrels. The Energy Information Administration will release official storage data later on Thursday morning, a day later than usual due to the Memorial Day holiday.