Oil drops as supply concerns, vaccine doubts sap rally | Reuters

Oil drops as supply concerns, vaccine doubts sap rally | Reuters

Oil prices were lower on Friday in quiet trade due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, dropping amid concerns about oversupply and doubts about a vaccine to end the coronavirus pandemic.

Brent crude was down by 31 cents, or 0.7%, at $47.49 by 0758 GMT, having fallen 1.7% overnight. West Texas Intermediate was down by $1.02, or 2.2%, at $44.69. U.S. crude prices did not settle on Thursday due to the holiday.

Both benchmarks have risen about 6% this week after AstraZeneca said that its COVID-19 vaccine could be up to 90% effective, adding to successful trial results of two others under development in the fight to end the pandemic.

But questions have been raised over the “vaccine for the world”, with several scientists sounding doubts over how robust the results of the trials were.

“With much of oil’s rally in November built on expectation, sentiment and speculative fast money, some sort of correction was long overdue,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.