Oil falls more than 1% as virus spreads in Middle East and Europe - Reuters

Oil falls more than 1% as virus spreads in Middle East and Europe - Reuters:

Oil prices fell more than 1% on Wednesday after hundreds of new coronavirus cases reported in Asia, Europe and the Middle East stoked fears that energy demand would decline, while crude oil inventories in the United States grew.

Brent crude was down 94 cents, or 1.7%, to $54.01 a barrel by 12:09 p.m. EST (1709 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude shed 53 cents, or 1.1%, $49.37 a barrel.

“It’s still all about the virus here,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. “It’s hard to come up with any type of scenario where demand increases over the next couple months.”

Prices briefly turned positive after the U.S. government reported a drop in gasoline inventories last week. Crude stocks grew by 452,000 barrels to 443.3 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said, which was less than the 2-million-barrel rise analysts had expected.