Oil drops as product prices, Chinese data highlight weak demand

Oil fell the most in almost four months as thin trading volumes exacerbated the fallout from gloomy reports about the health of the global economy.

Downbeat data on the U.S. jobs market and Chinese manufacturing sent West Texas Intermediate below US$72 a barrel on Tuesday to the lowest close since March 24. The 5.3 per cent drop was the biggest daily percentage decline since Jan. 4. U.S. trading volumes slipped to the lowest since December 2022 Monday amid holidays in Asia and the UK. 

“The market is an investor desert,” said Scott Shelton, an energy specialist at ICAP. “The fundamental information that generates predictable price action doesn’t exist.”