Oil hits skids, drops 7% on worsening outlook for coronavirus in Europe
Oil prices plunged for a fifth day in a row on Thursday, posting their biggest-one day declines since last summer on growing worries about rising COVID-19 cases in Europe and the strengthening U.S. dollar.
Several large European economies have had to reimpose lockdowns as caseloads rise, while vaccination programs are slowing due to concerns about side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine that was being widely distributed in Europe.
U.S. heating oil and gasoline also both fell more than 5%.
Brent futures dropped $4.72, or 6.9%, to settle at $63.28 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas International (WTI) crude fell $4.60, or 7.1%, to settle at $60.
Both contracts are down more than 11% since hitting recent highs on March 8. The five-day losing streak is the longest for WTI since February 2020 and for Brent since September 2020. It comes after speculators built the largest long position in CME-traded U.S. crude futures and options since 2018.
After the market close, both crude benchmarks continued to lose ground, each shedding over $6 a barrel, or 9%.
Reference: Reuters
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