Oil prices tumble to an eight-week low

Oil prices plunged to their eight-week low amid bearish sentiments stoked by the resurging virus and a soaring U.S dollar

On Monday, the British-based oil contract, Brent Crude futures lost almost 7% in value to break below its critical support level of $70 a barrel suffering its worst daily sell-off since March.  Oil traders arbitrarily reduced their long positions with the fast-spreading delta variant disrupting key economic hubs from Asia to Europe.

Chartists pre-empt more downsides with oil prices suffering new huge losses to surpass the second target at $70 a barrel thus approaches the last correctional level at $67.50, as oil traders keenly monitor its price behavior when reaching such levels, breaking below such price levels will likely trigger more selling pressures.

A stronger greenback also added more woes to the black viscous hydrocarbon as commodities priced in the safe-haven currency became less attractive to global investors and oil traders.

The greenback also appeared to be catching a safe-haven bid as well, as COVID-19/growth fears surge, which is also capping prices of Crude oil contracts from breaking north.

Oil bulls are now having it rough, after gaining in seven of the past eight months on a relatively strong global economy Though the recent OPEC+ deal seems to have removed some form of uncertainty in the most traded commodity market, the latest Covid-19 resurgence is a reminder that the recovery will not be steady as many anticipated.

The world’s most powerful economy had recently warned citizens not to travel to the United Kingdom and Indonesia amid a surge in COVID-19 infections in these areas.

Indonesia has now surpassed India in new daily caseloads, cementing its position as Asia’s new virus capital while several of its neighbors are seeing streams of cases.

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