London
\nOil rebounded by almost 5% on Monday to $76 a barrel as some investors viewed Friday\u2019s slump in oil and financial markets on concern about the Omicron coronavirus variant as overdone. The World Health Organisation has said it could take weeks to understand the variant\u2019s severity, although a South African doctor who has treated cases said symptoms so far seemed to be mild.
\nBrent crude was $3.24, or 4.5%, higher at $75.96 by 1047 GMT, after sliding $9.50 on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up $3.12, or 4.6%, at $71.27, having tumbled $10.24 in the previous session. \u201cWe saw some correction as Friday\u2019s plunge in oil prices has been overdone,\u201d said Tatsufumi Okoshi, senior economist at Nomura Securities.
\nFriday\u2019s slide, the biggest one-day drop since April 2020, reflected fears that travel bans would hammer fuel demand. The plunge was exacerbated by low liquidity due to a U.S. holiday, as demand fears did not justify such a fall, analysts said.
\n\u201cThe fear factor had its grip on financial markets on Friday,\u201d said Norbert Ruecker of Swiss bank Julius Baer. \u201cFundamentally, the announced and enacted international air travel constraints cannot explain such a sharp slump.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London Oil rebounded by almost 5% on Monday to $76 a barrel as some investors viewed Friday\u2019s slump in oil and financial markets on concern about the Omicron coronavirus variant as overdone. The World Health Organisation has said it could take weeks to understand the variant\u2019s severity, although a South African doctor who has treated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-230066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n