Oil slides on COVID-19 resurgence and strong dollar | Reuters

Oil slides on COVID-19 resurgence and strong dollar | Reuters:

Oil prices fell on Friday, dragged down by concerns that a spike in COVID-19 cases in Europe and the United States is curtailing demand in two of the world’s biggest fuel consuming regions, while a stronger U.S. dollar also pressured prices.

Brent crude futures for December LCOc1 dropped 60 cents, or 1.4%, to $42.56 a barrel by 1017 GMT and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for November delivery CLc1 slid 51 cents, or 1.3%, to $40.45.

Both benchmarks dipped the previous day but remain barely unchanged from a week earlier.

“The reality is that we’re now seeing a pretty active spread of the pandemic across Europe and it’s spreading again in North America, and that potentially will weigh on oil demand recovery,” said Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity research at the National Bank of Australia.