Global benchmark Brent crude settled down 79 cents, or 2.6% at $29.19 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, settled down 49 cents, or 1.9% at $25.29 a barrel. (File pick: Oil storage in Cushing, Oklahoma. - Reuters)
NEW YORK: Oil prices fell about 2% on Wednesday despite the first decline in U.S. crude inventories since January, as the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman stoked demand fears with a solemn address warning the economy would take many months to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Oil had rallied on optimism that slumping fuel demand would recover, while producers have slashed production to cut the mounting supply glut during the pandemic. But crude slid along with other risk assets like stocks on Wednesday due to the government signals that a rebound may take awhile.
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