Oil Prices fall 16 cents, Gold prices record high after Beirut Explosion

Oil prices fell to 16 cents on the fourth day of the business week, as mounting coronavirus cases worldwide and in the US undercut market confidence in a pickup in fuel demand.

According to the details, Brent crude was down 16 cents, or 0.4%, at $44.27 a barrel. It finished 0.6% higher on Wednesday.

West Texas Intermediate oil was down 17 cents, or 0.4%, at $41.53 a barrel.

The contract ended Tuesday trading 1.7% higher, its highest close since late July.

In addition to this, Crude inventories were down by 8.6 million barrels in the week to Aug. 1 to 520 million barrels.

Asian Shares

Major Asian stock markets declined Wednesday.

Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney declined.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5% to 3,354.92 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.7% to 22,426.91. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off less than 0.1% at 24,934.14.

The S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney fell 0.9% to 5,981.50 while Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.7% to 2,296.98. New Zealand and Jakarta retreated while Singapore gained.

Overnight on Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.4% to 3,306.51 as a rally eased.

The index is within 2.4% of its February record high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6% to 26,828.47. The Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to a record 10,941.17.

Gold Prices

Meanwhile on the other, due to massive explosions in the Lebanese capital, gold prices rose again rising $12.20 to $2,033.20 per ounce.