At around 6:38 pm (Brasília time), this Tuesday (16th), the WTI spot contract registered a drop of 0.90% and was traded at US$ 64.80 / barrel on the New York Stock Exchange. The commodity had its day pressured by the suspension of the use of the Oxford / AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in Germany, France and Italy, in addition to the new advance of contamination and deaths caused by the disease in Europe. In addition, attention is being paid to signs of economic weakness in the United States with manufacturing production down 2.2% in February, driven by the extreme cold wave in the south of the country. Retail sales fell 3% last month, up from 7% previously. On a positive note, the American Petroleum Institute (API) recently reported a drop of 1 million barrels in US fuel stocks in the week of March 9, after growing by more than 12 million barrels in the week past and market expectation of a rise of 2.715 million barrels.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.