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If oil prices remain at these levels until the end of the day it would represent the biggest one-day move in the careers of anyone in the industry.

This table shows the data going back to 1965 for Brent crude oil futures, the North Sea benchmark. As you can see, there hasn’t been a bigger daily move than 14.61% – and I believe that is a record for the contract.

That move in 2019 came when Saudi Arabian oil facilities were attacked.

Such a big move on the oil markets in such a short time is highly unusual. A lot of people will have made an awful lot of money.

Not least investors in the FTSE 100’s oil companies. Royal Dutch Shell’s two listings on the London Stock Exchange have both gained about 10%, while BP has gained 6.4%.

One of the ironies of the situation though is that low oil prices can act as something of a cushion for struggling economies that still need fuel for transport. But it appears that Trump’s concern may be to protect jobs in the US oil industry.

Here is the movement in Brent crude futures prices over the past 10 days. As you can see, Trump’s tweet has been the biggest market mover over that period.

Prices jumped from just over $26 per barrel to above $36 per barrel in the space of minutes.

It has since calmed somewhat, back down to about $30 per barrel – but that’s still a huge move of 24% for the day.

Oil prices are soaring after US President Donald Trump said that Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to cut production.

He expects a cut of 10m barrels, and possibly more, which would push prices up after a brutal selloff.

Brent crude oil futures prices have jumped by as much as 30%.

If all of the people who have filed for US jobless support in the last two weeks then that would mean the unemployment rate would hit 10% in April – already higher than the financial crisis as the previous chart shows.

By the time of the April payroll survey week Capital Economics estimates that 15m Americans will have filed a claim.

Fears of a surge in unemployment spurred US politicians to approve a $2trn stimulus package last month.

It includes checks for less wealthy families, and hundreds of billions of loans for large firms and small companies – including support to help them pay furloughed workers.

However, CNN reports there are problems getting those big commitments into the real economy.

Officials involved with implementing the legislation say federal agencies are staffing up, issuing guidance and working around the clock to prepare to disburse money quickly, but glitches in technology, delays and staffing and resource shortages are almost inevitable given the sheer size of the country’s largest-ever stimulus package.

“This is a national consequence of passing a $2 trillion bill in two weeks,” one person familiar with the implementation told CNN on background in order to speak freely about what they are hearing. “I don’t know if we know all the implementation issues yet.”