Oil Prices Down in 2-Day Rout as Pandemic Fear Throttles Markets

NEW YORK (Sputnik) – Crude prices tumbled about 3 percent as fears of a global collapse in energy demand and economic growth from the coronavirus triggered more selling in oil.

Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for crude, settled down $1.51, or 2.7%, at $54.26 per barrel on Tuesday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude benchmark, fell $1.53, or 3%, to settle at $49.90 per barrel. It was the first time in two weeks that the WTI had closed beneath the key $50 support level.

Since the week began, both crude benchmarks had lost more than 6 percent each of their value.

Stocks on Wall Street also plunged for a second straight day, suffering their biggest two-day decline since 2018, as US officials warned that the spread of the coronavirus contagion might be inevitable in the world’s largest economy.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency has forecast that global demand for crude as a whole will drop 435,000 barrels daily this quarter, versus the opening quarter of 2019. The US Energy Information Administration, meanwhile, expects worldwide demand for oil to fall by 310,000 barrels daily for all of 2020.

Sourse: sputniknews.com