Oil’s rally extended to a fourth day as a combination of recovering demand, production cuts and promising test results for a coronavirus vaccine brightened the outlook for energy prices.
Futures in New York rose around 4% to past $33 a barrel after closing at the highest level in almost 10 weeks on Monday. The June contract expires Tuesday but a repeat of last month’s plunge below zero is highly unlikely. There were far higher trading volumes in the July contract, which advanced around 3%.
Crude got an extra boost on Monday after American biotechnology company Moderna Inc. said its vaccine showed signs it can create an immune-system response to the virus, helping to spur broad financial market gains. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate’s front-month contract settled above the July contract for the first time since January, moving into a market structure known as backwardation that signals concerns over storage capacity have eased.
