Oil prices fell more than 1% on Thursday, extending the previous session’s 3% drop, pressured by mounting recession concerns and a surprise boost in U.S. crude inventories, Trend reports citing Reuters.
In a sign of investor concern that the world’s biggest economy could be heading for recession, weighing on oil demand, the U.S. Treasury bond yield curve inverted on Wednesday for the first time since 2007.
China’s threat to impose counter-measures in retaliation for the latest U.S. tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods also weighed on oil prices.
Brent crude LCOc1 fell as much as $1.81, or 3%, to $57.67 a barrel. The international benchmark was $1.23, or 2.1%, lower at $58.25 and West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) CLc1 was down 75 cents, or 1.4%, to $54.48 by 12:32 p.m. ET (1632 GMT)