Oil Slightly Rebounds after 5% Plummet in Concerns of Oversupply amid Rising Covid Cases

Oil prices dropped more than 5% last night as coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Europe surged amid rising U.S. crude stockpiles.

 

Over the night, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude dropped $2.18 per barrel or 5.5% to $37.39 a barrel. Brent Crude plunged $2.08 per barrel or 5.1% to $39.12 a barrel.

The U.S. reported another 74,410 coronavirus cases on October 27, 2020, pushing the total cases stateside to 8.93 million with 228,000 deaths in total. Meanwhile, France reported another 33,417 cases. The United Kingdom added 21,238 cases. Italy had 21,989 more cases. Spain reported an addition of 18,418 cases.

France will enter another lockdown this Friday to curb the infection rate, while Germany expected a one-month lockdown starting November 2nd. The lockdown put pressure to oil prices as the demand will likely plunge, coupled with an additional 2 million bpd output increase by the OPEC+  to start in January next year.

Adding pressure to oil prices, U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected last week as production surged in a record build, according to the data reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

 

Oil prices rebounded in the early Asian trading hour. WTI rose $0.22 per barrel or 0.59% to $37.61 a barrel. Brent Crude gained $0.21 per barrel or 0.54% to $39.33 a barrel.