Oil heads for another weekly slide on coronavirus turmoil - Reuters

Oil heads for another weekly slide on coronavirus turmoil - Reuters:

Oil prices rose on Friday, but both the Brent and U.S. benchmarks were on track for their third straight week of losses as global production shutdowns failed to keep pace with the collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The oil market has experienced unprecedented turbulence since U.S. prices fell into negative territory on Monday for the first time ever and international benchmark Brent sank to two-decade lows.

Investors have sold oil aggressively since early March, in response to a 30% collapse in demand due to the pandemic.

This week’s declines will mark the eighth week of losses out of the last nine weeks. Brent is on track for a 24% weekly drop and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is set for a fall of around 7%.

Brent LCOc1 futures rose 18 cents, or 0.8%, to $21.50 a barrel by 11:57 a.m. EDT (1557 GMT), while U.S. WTI CLc1 rose 56 cents, or 3.5%, to $17.06.