Oil prices sink to lowest in over a year, biggest weekly drop in four years

The most active Brent future for May delivery fell US$2.06, or 4.0%, to settle at $49.67 a barrel, its lowest since July 2017. Brent futures for April delivery, meanwhile, lost US$1.66, or 3.2%, to settle at $50.52 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.33, or 5.0%, to settle at $44.76. That is the lowest closes for both Brent and WTI since December 2018. For the week, Brent lost almost 14%, its biggest weekly percentage decline since January 2016, while WTI fell over 16% in its biggest weekly percentage drop since December 2008.

NEW YORK:Oil prices slumped for a sixth day in a row on Friday to their lowest in more than a year, causing futures to drop by the most in a week since 2016, as the spread of coronavirus stoked fears that a slowing global economy would hit energy demand.

The coronavirus spread further, with cases reported for the first time in six countries across three continents, battering markets and leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its impact risk alert to "very high."