Oil Slumps 10% This Week as Oversupply Fears Send Bulls to Exits
- China’s Covid cases and looming rate hikes weighing on outlook
- Boost from OPEC+’s contentious cuts erased as demand weakens
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Oil dropped the most in a week since April as the full weight of languishing Chinese demand and more economic tightening radically shifted the market’s sentiment.
West Texas Intermediate fell 1.9% to settle just over $80 a barrel. US futures fell 10% this week, the most since Biden ordered a historic discharge of crude from the Strategic Reserves in April. Swelling Covid cases in China and aggressive monetary tightening by central banks have combined to erase all the gains earned last month when OPEC and its partners slashed production by 2 million barrels a day.