SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices fell on Monday, hit by renewed concerns about global fuel demand amid tough coronavirus lockdowns in Europe and new curbs on movement in China.
Brent crude oil futures were down 62 cents at $55.37 a barrel by 0603 GMT, after having climbed to $56.39, their highest since last February. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped 38 cents to $51.86 a barrel. WTI rose to its highest in nearly a year on Friday.
“Covid hot spots flaring again in Asia, with 11 million people [in] lockdowns in China’s Hebei province…along with a touch of Fed policy uncertainty, has triggered some profit taking out of the gates,” Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, said in a note, according to Reuters.
Mainland China saw its biggest daily increase in virus infection in more than five months, Reuters cited authorities as saying, as new infections rose in Hebei, which surrounds the capital, Beijing.
Authorities has placed Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital and epicenter of the new outbreak, under lockdown, with people and barred from leaving.
Most Europe is also under the strictest restrictions, according to Oxford stringency index, which tracks measures such as travel bans and school and workplace closures.
