Stock Markets Fall on Renewed Pessimism: Live Updates

“In a market as weak as this you would expect interest to shift,” said David Fyfe, chief economist at Argus Media, a commodities pricing agency. “It’s a little bit of a glitch, I suspect.”

The next futures contract for West Texas Intermediate — the June contract — was trading considerably higher, at about $23 a barrel.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, whose contract has already expired, was under less pressure, falling by about 5.8 percent to about a little over $26 a barrel.

Oil traders are in the midst of a market “contango,” in which later futures contracts have higher prices than those that expire earlier. The May 2021 contract — reflecting the market’s sense of the value of oil a year from now — is trading at about $35 a barrel.

Still, there are few buyers for oil right now. Global oil consumption is expected to be about a third lower in April because of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and the incentive is to store it for what may be a better day. But storage facilities are very quickly being filled.

Wall Street set for a downbeat start to the week.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html