Oil prices tumbled over 5 per cent, or more than US$2 a barrel on Wednesday, after US crude storage hit another record and coronavirus cases rebounded in countries like Germany and surged in heavily populated areas of the United States.[NEW YORK] Oil prices tumbled over 5 per cent, or more than US$2 a barrel on Wednesday, after US crude storage hit another record and coronavirus cases rebounded in countries like Germany and surged in heavily populated areas of the United States.
The United States had its second-largest rise in infections since the pandemic began. Mounting infections there as well as in China, Latin America and India have unnerved investors and pressured oil prices. "The market is signalling that if it doesn't get constant reassurance that we are emerging from the breakdown in demand that happened because of the pandemic, then higher oil prices really don't make sense," said Gene McGillian, vice-president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
Brent crude settled at US$40.31 a barrel, down US$2.32, or 5.4 per cent. On Tuesday, Brent hit its highest price since early March, just before the pandemic and Saudi-Russia price war roiled markets.