Oil continues to drop despite lower-than-expected rise in US inventories

Oil prices fell on Wednesday, amid the lingering worries over the coronavirus, despite a less-than-expected rise in the US crude inventories data.

Several countries revealed an increase in the number of coronavirus infections, which raised market's concerns over the virus impact on the global economic growth.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) unveiled today that US oil inventories rose by 0.5 million barrels in the past week, which came lower than forecasts of 2.8 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute revealed yesterday slightly higher figures, as it showed that US inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels.

As for the oil market, WTI crude fell 1.6% to trade at $49.08 a barrel as of 19:35 GMT, after it hit earlier a high of $50.4 and a low of $48.9.

Brent lost 2% to $53.8 a barrel, with a high of $55.4 and a low of $53.6.