AFP, Singapore :
Oil prices plunged about six percent Thursday after US President Donald Trump announced a 30-day ban on all travel from Europe to the United States over the coronavirus pandemic.
West Texas Intermediate slipped 6.2 percent to $31 a barrel while Brent crude was off 5.8 percent at under $34 a barrel.
Both contracts extended heavy losses from a day earlier, which came after Saudi Arabia and Gulf partner the UAE stepped up a price war by vowing to pump millions more barrels of crude.
Crude markets have been in turmoil since the start of the week, when they suffered their biggest one-day drop in a generation after Riyadh slashed prices following a row with Moscow about output cuts.
Prices briefly bounced after Trump began addressing the nation on the virus outbreak, which is now hitting the world’s top economy hard – but then quickly slipped into the red.
Oil prices plunged about six percent Thursday after US President Donald Trump announced a 30-day ban on all travel from Europe to the United States over the coronavirus pandemic.
West Texas Intermediate slipped 6.2 percent to $31 a barrel while Brent crude was off 5.8 percent at under $34 a barrel.
Both contracts extended heavy losses from a day earlier, which came after Saudi Arabia and Gulf partner the UAE stepped up a price war by vowing to pump millions more barrels of crude.
Crude markets have been in turmoil since the start of the week, when they suffered their biggest one-day drop in a generation after Riyadh slashed prices following a row with Moscow about output cuts.
Prices briefly bounced after Trump began addressing the nation on the virus outbreak, which is now hitting the world’s top economy hard – but then quickly slipped into the red.
