Oil is still on a bumpy path to recovery despite price swerve

Oil just experienced its biggest one-day price slump in more than six months, but it hasn’t veered off the road to recovery.

Even as problems with Europe’s vaccine program and a slowdown in Chinese crude buying sent futures down 7% on Thursday, data from around the world showed a steady, albeit patchy, recovery in demand.

A year ago, idled jetliners were parked wing-tip to wing-tip on airport taxiways as a raging virus kept billions of people at home. Today, U.S. airports are the busiest since the pandemic started and flight attendants are returning from furlough.