Brent drops to 2-week low on global demand worries

Brent crude continued to fall as the US market opened on Monday, to deepen losses for the second straight day and pulled back further from an 11-month high on profit-taking and renewed concerns about the global demand due to the rising Covid-19 infections in most parts of the world.

Brent crude fell 0.7% to $54.52 a barrel, after opening at $54.92, and hit a high of $55.18.

Brent crude futures fell 2.9% on Friday, its second loss in 3 days on profit-taking from the highest since February 2020 of $57.40.

China reported on Friday the largest daily increase in new Covid-19 cases in more than 10 months, especially after new infections in the northeastern Heilongjiang province tripled.

This spike is the equivalent to the number that led to imposing a full quarantine on more than 28 million people in Hubei province 8 months ago.

Most European countries are now under the strictest lockdown since the first coronavirus wave, especially after the UK identified the new Covid-19 strain.

RBC Capital Markets Bank said that oil market euphoria is unequivocally strong, but indicators from Asia are mixed, as China, the global engine of oil demand growth, is wrestling with fresh COVID outbreaks.