Oil futures declined on Thursday, with prices for the global Brent crude benchmark marking their lowest settlement since July as concerns remained over the outlook for demand.
Oil prices saw even steeper losses early Thursday as the U.S. stock market sold off sharply on the heels of a tech selloff.
West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange edged down by 14 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $41.37 a barrel, paring losses after trading as low as $40.22. The U.S. benchmark was down a second straight session, holding ground at the lowest finish since Aug. 7, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
November Brent crude, the global benchmark, declined 36 cents, or 0.8%, to $44.07 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. That marked the lowest front-month contract settlement since July 31.
The “energy space has stabilized,” however, partially thanks to the fact that the day’s equity market volatility was “not a function of a materially negative headline regarding the global economy, the coronavirus, or stimulus but rather overextended valuations,” Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research, told MarketWatch.
On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration on reported a hefty, 9.4 million-barrel weekly drop in U.S. crude supplies, along with a fall of 4.3 million barrels in gasoline inventories, but that failed to provide a lift to oil prices as demand remained weak.
Source: MarketWatch