Sharjah24 – AFP: Oil prices plunged on Tuesday as China, a major energy consumer, placed nearly 30 million people under Covid lockdown, and Hong Kong and Chinese mainland stock markets dove, while Wall Street stocks rallied.
Brent oil futures finished under $100 a barrel for the first time in nearly three weeks, reflecting worries regarding the prospects for the world’s second largest economy as it confronts the latest Covid-19 surge.
“We have good news and we have bad news,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
“The good news is that oil prices are down sharply. The bad news is that the big drop in oil prices is due to growth concerns which, by extension, don’t bode well for earnings growth prospects,” O’Hare said.
China reported 5,280 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, more than double the previous day’s tally, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spread across a country that has stuck tightly to a zero-Covid strategy.