Crude oil prices fell lower on Monday morning at London’s trading session as the amount of COVID-19 cases increased in momentum around the globe.
Crude oil traders reduced their long positions on crude oil futures exposure, making Brent lose about 0.60% to $42.90 by 5.08 GMT. West Texas Intermediate also printed lower to trade at $40.37 after losing 0.57%.
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Stephen Innes, Chief Global Market Strategist at AxiCorp in a note to Nairametrics explained the favourable macros that helped energy futures, last week. He said:
“Favourable outcome from last week’s OPEC+ meeting and a big draw in US crude and product inventories helped oil recover from a sharp decline early in the week, to close 3% up on the week.”
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However, Innes spoke about the fundamentals limiting crude oil bulls. He continued by saying:
“But with global daily Covid-19 case counts still rising and the US Sunbelt most populous states showing little success in bending and containing the EPI curve, concerns about the post-COVID-19 recovery pace are limiting the upside for oil.”
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The number of COVID-19 caseloads around the globe is closing in on 14.5 million, with the death toll surpassing 600,000, according to John Hopkins University data. This continuous surge in these viral infections continues to weaken crude oil bulls.