Brent oil futures plunge as growing glut feeds market panic - Reuters

Brent oil futures plunge as growing glut feeds market panic - Reuters:

Brent oil futures prices plunged again on Tuesday as oil market panic extended into a second day with no end in sight to a swelling global crude glut as the coronavirus pandemic has obliterated demand for fuel.

The most-actively traded U.S. contract, which expires in June, briefly sank into single-digits a day after traders had to pay $37.63 to get rid each barrel of oil at settlement of the expiring May contract. Facing a dearth of storage space and a dramatic 30% plunge in worldwide fuel demand, funds kept selling oil aggressively.

With supply looking like it will far exceed demand for weeks, Brent LCOc1 futures for June delivery fell $6.24, or 24%, to settle at $19.33 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc2 for June, the front-month contract as of Wednesday, fell $8.86, or 43%, to $11.57.

U.S.

June futures traded a record of more than 2 million contracts on Tuesday.

At their session lows, the Brent front-month fell to $17.51 a barrel, its lowest since November 2001, while the WTI second-month fell to a record low of $6.50 for that contract.

WTI for May delivery CLc1 rebounded from negative territory and expired at $10.01 a barrel, as most open positions coming into this week were settled on Monday.