Oil slips as rise in coronavirus cases overshadows fuel demand recovery - Reuters

Oil slips as rise in coronavirus cases overshadows fuel demand recovery - Reuters:

Oil prices eased on Tuesday amid concerns that a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections around the world will see a pickup in fuel demand stalling amid tighter lockdowns - just as major producers ramp up output.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures eased 4 cents, or 0.1% to $40.97 a barrel at 0655 GMT, while Brent crude futures fell 11 cents, or 0.3% to $44.04 a barrel.

The slide comes after WTI rose 1.8% and Brent climbed 1.5% on Monday on better-than-expected data on manufacturing activity in Asia, Europe and the United States showing factories were emerging from the worst of the early coronavirus pandemic impact.

“On the demand side, we had quite encouraging global manufacturing (data) ... but there’s still quite a bit of evidence of the oil demand recovery stalling in quite a few markets with a resurgence of COVID-19,” said Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity research at National Australia Bank (NAB).