Oil turns lower, US crude sheds more than 2%

A sharp drop casted a shadow today in most global markets, and the oil market was not an expectations from that, as oil prices turned lower to deepen their losses amid concerns over the coronavirus.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) will release later today its preliminary data on US crude inventories, and the US Energy Information Administration will release the official report tomorrow.

Several countries, such as Switzerland, Austria, Bahrain, Kuwait, South Korea and Italy, led by China, announced further cases and deaths of the coronavirus.

The dollar index was lower by 0.4% to reach 98.9 points at 18:30 GMT, after it hit earlier an intraday high of 99.3 and a low of 98.9.

As for oil prices, WTI crude lost 2.3% to trade at $50.2 a barrel as of 18:27 GMT, with a high of $52.02 and a low of $50.1.

Brent fell 2% to $55.1 a barrel, after it hit a high of $56.9 and a low of $55.1.