Oil Slides After Three-Day Gain as Traders Assess Omicron Risk - Bloomberg

Oil Slides After Three-Day Gain as Traders Assess Omicron Risk - Bloomberg

PRICES
West Texas Intermediate for January delivery slipped 0.4% to $72.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:15 a.m. London time after gaining 0.4% on Wednesday. Brent for February settlement was 0.4% lower at $75.49 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Brent’s prompt timespread was 27 cents in backwardation, compared with from 35 cents a week earlier.

Oil fell after three days of gains as traders weighed mixed signals on how the omicron variant of the virus may impact fuel demand.

Futures slipped near $72 a barrel in New York, having climbed more than 9% over the prior three sessions. While lab studies by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE show a third dose of their vaccine can neutralize omicron, government restrictions aimed at containing its spread are still casting a shadow over the outlook for consumption.

U.S. crude stockpiles, meanwhile, dropped by a modest 241,000 barrels last week for a second weekly draw, according to government data. Inventories of gasoline and distillates, a category that includes diesel, rose.