Uncertainties caused by rising cases of coronavirus across nations and subsequent decline of the use of petroleum and other products have combined to impact negatively on the price of crude oil in the market.
On Tuesday, the price of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 30 cents, or 0.7 per cent to $40.71 a barrel at 0414 GMT and Brent crude futures fell 37 cents or 0.8 per cent to $43.78 a barrel,
The decline comes after WTI rose 1.8 per cent and Brent climbed 1.5 per cent on Monday on better-than-expected data on manufacturing activity in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Reports indicate that the activity is showing factories were emerging from the worst of the early coronavirus pandemic impact.
“On the demand side, we had quite encouraging global manufacturing (data). But there’s still quite a bit of evidence of the oil demand recovery stalling in quite a few markets with a resurgence of COVID-19,’’ said Lachlan Shaw, Head of commodity research at National Australia Bank (NAB).
In a further sign of a patchy rebound in demand, analysts estimate U.S. refined product stockpiles rose last week, according to a preliminary Reuters’ poll ahead of data due from the American Petroleum Institute industry group later on Tuesday and the U.S. government on Wednesday.
