Oil falls 3% as COVID-19 infections raise demand concerns | Reuters

Oil falls 3% as COVID-19 infections raise demand concerns | Reuters

Oil fell 3% on Monday, extending last week’s losses as growing cases of COVID-19 in the United States and Europe raised worries about crude demand, while the prospect of increased supply also hurt sentiment.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down $1.25 cents, or 3%, at $40.52 by 0755 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped $1.28 cents, or 3.2%, to $38.57, having fallen more than a dollar shortly after the start of trading.

Brent fell 2.7% last week and WTI dropped 2.5%.

The United States reported its highest number yet of new coronavirus infections in two days through Saturday, while in France new cases hit a record of more than 50,000 on Sunday, underlining the severity of the outbreak.