Crude oil price barrels ahead as OPEC flags meeting with non-members

The price of crude oil surged again Friday after OPEC said it would talk to non-members, notably Russia, giving investors hope that they will stop a price war which has created market chaos along with crushed demand because of the coronavirus.

Global stock markets fell following another set of devastating American employment numbers, gloomy eurozone services data and news that the number of declared COVID-19 infections had hit one million worldwide.

The US economy shed 701,000 jobs in March amid the damage inflicted by the coronavirus shutdowns — several times the market’s consensus forecast, while the unemployment rate surged to 4.4 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.