Oil prices fell to 16 cents on the fourth day of the business week, as mounting coronavirus cases worldwide and in the US undercut market confidence in a pickup in fuel demand.
According to the details, Brent crude was down 16 cents, or 0.4%, at $44.27 a barrel. It finished 0.6% higher on Wednesday.
West Texas Intermediate oil was down 17 cents, or 0.4%, at $41.53 a barrel.
The contract ended Tuesday trading 1.7% higher, its highest close since late July.
In addition to this, Crude inventories were down by 8.6 million barrels in the week to Aug. 1 to 520 million barrels.
Asian Shares
Major Asian stock markets declined Wednesday.
Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney declined.
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The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5% to 3,354.92 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.7% to 22,426.91. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off less than 0.1% at 24,934.14.
The S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney fell 0.9% to 5,981.50 while Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.7% to 2,296.98. New Zealand and Jakarta retreated while Singapore gained.
Overnight on Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.4% to 3,306.51 as a rally eased.
The index is within 2.4% of its February record high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 26,828.47. The Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to a record 10,941.17.
Gold Prices
Meanwhile on the other, due to massive explosions in the Lebanese capital, gold prices rose again rising $12.20 to $2,033.20 per ounce.
