Oil slides on surging US stocks
Brent loses ground, pulled down by swelling US inventories and a plunge in global stock markets as China warns of increasing economic headwinds
Singapore — Oil prices slumped by about 2% on Wednesday, pulled down by swelling US inventories and a plunge in global stock markets as China’s government warned of increasing economic headwinds. International Brent crude oil futures were at $60.87 a barrel at 4.18am GMT, down $1.21, or 2%, from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.31 a barrel, down 95c, or 1.8%. Reuters technical commodity analyst Wang Tao said WTI could soon test support at $51.75 a barrel, while Brent was threatening to drop below $60 a barrel again soon. Oil prices were pressured by a weekly report from the American Petroleum Institute (API) that said US crude inventories rose by 5.4-million barrels in the week to November 30, to 448-million barrels, in a sign that US oil markets are in a growing glut. Official US government oil production and inventory data is due later on Wednesday. More broadly, the slide in US oil followed a tumble in global stock markets on Tuesday, w...
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