Oil Prices: US Crude Hits 2016 High After Report That Saudi Arabia, Russia Have Agreed To Production Freeze

Global oil prices hit fresh highs on Tuesday, with Brent crude piercing $44 a barrel and U.S. crude hitting a 2016 high, extending earlier gains, after a report that top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to freeze output ahead of a much-anticipated producers meeting on Sunday.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a diplomatic source in Doha saying that Russia and Saudi Arabia reached a consensus on Tuesday about an output freeze and that the final decision will not depend on Iran.