With inflation concerns and a cooling Asian market rocking economic conditions, the value of oil continues to decline, resulting in the longest losing streak in over a year. This comes as U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate endures its fifth straight day of losses.
The price of crude oil had decreased significantly this week, following the shrinking of the Asian market for physical barrels. Another significant factor of the recent price drop is the halted use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in several European countries due to instances of blood clotting. This issue has placed a stoppage on the demand recovery that the European continent had been experiencing until late.
Despite the latest setbacks, some industry experts remain confident of oil’s ability to bounce back in the coming days. Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd., remarked that, “Short-term supply and demand considerations are temporarily casting a shadow over the bright future that is likely to arrive in the third quarter of the year.”
The exact moment of recovery for oil remains difficult to predict, with the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic still unbalanced. While Japan has plans to lift the Tokyo area emergency on March 21st, Brazil is experiencing an unparalleled surge in coronavirus cases nationwide. The United Kingdom has also been rocked with regards to the pandemic, as delayed imports of the AstraZeneca vaccine cripples supply this month.
