Americas News
More Hurt For Crude Prices Over Coronavirus Concerns
More hurt for crude prices came on Wednesday as the decision to shut the global economy due to the coronavirus continued to slash demand.
This was despite real-time statistical websites providing a much-needed perspective on the spread and severity of the virus.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 17 cents to settle at $20.31 per barrel on Wednesday, and Brent fell $1.35 to $24.99 per barrel.
With fear having completely replaced reason in trading activity, it was no surprise that Gene McGillian, a broker and oil analyst at Tradition Energy, predicted more hurt in coming days: he said, "Global inventories will be chock full by mid-May...I think the market can continue to decline further.
"There's no signs of reproachment with producers, and with further demand destruction we could get another $5 taken from the market."
Bjornar Tonhaugen, analyst at Rystad Energy, added, "The market is oversupplied in April to the tune of 25 million barrels per day; there's nowhere to hide from this tsunami of oversupply."
The analysts were referring to countries such as Saudi Arabia and the U.S. pumping full out in a bid to maintain global market share (media reported on Wednesday that the latter country is producing 13 million barrels of crude oil per day, just under record production highs)
Meanwhile, as trading activity has been hijacked by fear of the spreading coronavirus and media is gearing up for more doomsday headlines as the virus reaches its apex in coming weeks, the worldometer website that tracks statistics in real time puts the threat of the disease into some perspective.
Worldometer shows that between January 1 and April 1, deaths caused by the coronavirus globally numbered 46,438.
This compares to 121,876 deaths globally to date from the seasonal flu; 245,884 from malaria; 421,404 from HIV/Aids; 1,253,147 from smoking; and 2,058,802 from cancer.
Worldometer's breakdown of coronavirus numbers also reveals that of the 926,625 cases and 46,438 deaths, 193,431 people have recovered and - most importantly but ignored by both liberal and conservative media - 651,821 of the currently infected 686,756 cases are of a mild condition (meaning sore throat or cough and no hospitalization required).
