Oil dives over 5% as U.S. crude stocks hit record, COVID cases mount - Reuters

Oil dives over 5% as U.S. crude stocks hit record, COVID cases mount - Reuters:

Oil prices tumbled over 5%, or more than $2 a barrel on Wednesday, after U.S. crude storage hit another record and coronavirus cases rebounded in countries like Germany and surged in heavily populated areas of the United States.

The United States had its second-largest rise in infections since the pandemic began. Mounting infections there as well as in China, Latin America and India have unnerved investors and pressured oil prices.

“The market is signalling that if it doesn’t get constant reassurance that we are emerging from the breakdown in demand that happened because of the pandemic, then higher oil prices really don’t make sense,” said Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

Brent crude settled at $40.31 a barrel, down $2.32, or 5.4%. On Tuesday, Brent hit its highest price since early March, just before the pandemic and Saudi-Russia price war roiled markets.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $38.01 a barrel, losing $2.36, or 5.8%.