Oil prices fell during Wednesday’s trading,
continuing to decline for a fourth consecutive session, amid fears of global
pandemic as the coronavirus continued to spread rapidly outside China.
The sell off continued to hit risky assets causing
a decline of nearly 3 percent in oil prices on Monday to record the lowest level
in two weeks.
As of 07:58 GMT, Brent crude reached $54.02 per
barrel, compared to the sessions open at $54.41 a barrel, touching the lowest
level at $53.80, which is the lowest since February 2 of the current year.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures
traded at $59.78 per barrel, to complete four consecutive daily sessions of
losses, while the lowest level recorded during the session was at $49.58, the
lowest since February 11.
The Black gold continued to fall with sharp
losses in global equities, amid growing concern about the impact of China's
virus on global economic growth and oil demand.
The director of the International Energy Agency
(IEA), Fatih Birol, said that estimates of crude demand growth could be reduced
due to the Chinese virus.
The number of Corona virus victims has
increased by 406 new confirmed cases and 52 new deaths, as of February 25,
according to china's National Health Commission. This brings the total number
of confirmed HIV infections in mainland China to 78,064 to date.
Outside China, South Korea reported 60 new
cases, bringing the total number of people infected by corona virus in the
country to 893, Bahrain also reported a rise in the number of infected cases to
26.
US stocks closing
U.S. stock indexes fell at its closing on Tuesday,
as fears of global outbreak of Coronavirus derived the investors away from high-risk
assets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 3.1
percent to 27,081 points, losing 879.4 points, recorded the biggest drop in two
consecutive days in history.
The S&P 500 tumbled three percent to 3,128
points and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.8 percent to 8,965.
Later on Wednesday, investors will focus on the government EIA report
tracking the change in US crude inventories for the past week, with
expectations of an increase of 2.3 million barrels.