Crude oil futures tumbled below $99 a barrel Wednesday morning amid global demand jitters.
Prices have fallen sharply over the past week, with scary economic data out of China offsetting concerns about the situation in Ukraine.
Crude oil was down $1.64 at $98.42 a barrel, its lowest since early February.
Official data from the Energy Department is expected to reveal a large build in U.S. crude oil inventories at 10:30 am ET.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels in the week to March 7 to 367 million, industry data from the American Petroleum Institute showed last night.
In economic news, Eurozone industrial production declined unexpectedly due to a drop in energy output.
Industrial output fell 0.2 percent month-on-month in January. Economists were expecting production to expand 0.5 percent.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Market Analysis
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.