U.S. crude rose on Tuesday morning, but a historic fall in its May contract, which plunged below zero, raised concerns among investors and triggered the deepest fall in Asian stock markets.
Oil traders could not sell the WTI contract for May yesterday, after the scarcity of oil storage facilities turned holders of the oil contracts expiring later today, to compulsory sellers.
US crude was trading at $20.95, up 2.55% as at 8 am Nigerian local time.
In Asia’s trading sessions, the MSCI’s broadest index outside Japan plunged about 2%, as did the Japanese Index Nikkei 225.
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The panic sell-off also came together with more signs of a slowing recovery amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
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In America, the three major indices suffered heavily, as the Dow Jones 30 index dropped by 2.44%, to close at 23,650.44. The S&P 500 index also lost about 0.8%, to close at 2,823.16.
The Nasdaq 100 index, comprising mainly tech brands like Apple, Facebook, and Google, took a hit too, losing 1.03%, to close at 8,560.73.
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Gold futures climbed up as much as 1%, as the panic sell-off by global investors made gold a safe place to place their bets, but by the time the Asian trading session ended, gold futures dropped by 0.22% at $1,710.50 by 8am local time.