Oil Prices Rise as WHO Calms Coronavirus Worries
Investing.com
Published Jan 24, 2020 12:29AM ET
Updated Jan 24, 2020 12:42AM ET
By Alex Ho
Get The News You Want
Investing.com - Oil prices rose on Friday in Asia after hitting nine-week lows in the previous session amid fears over the new China coronavirus.
Get The News You Want
Get The News You Want
U.S. Crude Oil WTI Futures gained 0.5% to $55.84 by 12:01 AM ET (04:01 GMT), while international Brent Oil Futures rose 0.4% to $62.28.
Get The News You Want
Get The News You Want
The flu-like virus, which can be transmitted from person to person, has killed 25 people in China so far and infected more than 800, according to data released by Chinese authorities on Friday.
Get The News You Want
Get The News You Want
But fears of contagion were calmed somewhat after the WHO said it was "too early" to worry about a global outbreak, adding that the virus remained a local crisis for now.
Get The News You Want
"If the epidemic spreads and we start to see the flight cancellations spread to other countries and airports in Asia, it would certainly have a "significant hit on jet fuel demand and therefore crude oil," Schork Report Editor Stephen Schork said.
Get The News You Want
Meanwhile, oil inventories fell by 405,000, the EIA reported in its weekly report. Traders were looking for a decline of about 1 million barrels for oil inventories, according to forecasts compiled by Investing.com.
Get The News You Want
Gasoline inventories rose by 1.75 million barrles, versus forecasts for a a rise of about 1 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles dropped by about 1.2 million barrels, versus expectations for a build of 3 million barrels.
Get The News You Want
“After the humongous build in fuels the past two weeks, you can say that this is a relatively positive report for the bulls,” Investing.com analyst Barani Krishan said. “Yet it doesn’t seem to have helped sentiment too much as the market’s worries are all on China demand now, pursuant to the coronavirus problem.”
Get The News You Want
“While we had a near 1-million barrel decline in Cushing stockpiles, U.S. crude exports fell about 70,000 bpd on the week and production remained at a stubborn high of 13 million bpd,“ he added.
Get The News You Want
“Unless we get some strong offtakes soon on the products side, it’s going to be hard to see much positives in this market.”
Written By: Investing.com
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.