Oil prices jump 3% on coronavirus vaccine hopes, EU stimulus deal

Oil prices gained more than 3% to hit a more than four-month high on Tuesday, helped by positive news about coronavirus vaccine trials and a European Union stimulus deal.Brent crude rose $1.39, or 3.2%, to $44.67 a barrel by 11:19 a.m. EDT (1519 GMT).

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) jumped $1.36, or 3.3%, to $42.17 a barrel. Both benchmarks were at their strongest since March 6.Prices were buoyed by an agreement among European Union leaders on a 750 billion euro ($859 billion) fund to prop up their coronavirus-hit economies, lifting prospects for fuel demand.

“The stimulus that we got out of Europe really seems to have set the stage for the energy rally,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “The expectation is if they can get this through all the individual governments and the approval process there is going to be a surge of oil demand.