Oil slumps further as China virus spreads - Reuters

Oil slumps further as China virus spreads - Reuters:

Crude prices fell more than 2% to multi-month lows on Monday as the rising number of cases of the new coronavirus in China and city lockdowns there deepened concerns over oil demand.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell by $1.28 a barrel, or 2.1%, to $59.41 by 0744 GMT, having earlier dropped to $58.68, its lowest since late October. U.S. crude CLc1 was down by $1.24, or 2.3%, to $52.95, having earlier eased to $52.15, the lowest since early October.

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, seeking to calm the market, said on Monday he was watching developments in China and said he felt confident the new virus would be contained.

Markets are being “primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite (the virus’s) very limited impact on global oil demand,” he said.