Oil falls 1% on sluggish coronavirus recovery, supply concerns - Reuters

Oil falls 1% on sluggish coronavirus recovery, supply concerns - Reuters:

Oil prices lost about 1% on Friday as the economic recovery worldwide runs into stumbling blocks due to renewed coronavirus lockdowns and on worries about rising crude supply.

The euro zone’s economic recovery from its deepest downturn on record stalled this month as pent-up demand unleashed by the easing of lockdowns in July dwindled, a survey showed. By contrast, U.S. housing and manufacturing survey data came in better than expected.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures settled at $44.35 a barrel, down 55 cents, 1.2%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures settled at $42.34 a barrel, falling 86 cents, or 1.1%.

Brent fell about 1% for the week, while WTI saw a weekly rise of nearly 1%.

India’s crude oil imports fell in July to their lowest level since March 2010, while U.S. motorists drove 13% fewer miles in June than a year earlier, according the U.S. Department of Transportation.