Crude oil falls amid rising covid cases in India, other countries

Oil prices fell on Monday amid mounting concerns that surging caseloads of coronavirus infections in India and other countries will lead to stronger measures and hit economic activity, along with demand for commodities such as crude.

Brent crude was down 43 cents, or 0.6%, at $66.34 a barrel by 0139 GMT, after rising 6% last week. U.S. oil was down 42 cents, or 0.7%, at $62.71 a barrel, having gained 6.4% last week.

“With … a resurgence of virus cases in India and Japan, topside ambitions continue to run into walls of profit-taking,” said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at Axi.

India reported 261,500 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking cases to nearly 14.8 million, second only to the United States, which has reported more than 31 million infections.