Oil hits skids, drops 7% on worsening outlook for coronavirus in Europe

Oil prices plunged for a fifth day in a row on Thursday, posting their biggest-one day declines since last summer on growing worries about rising Covid-19 cases in Europe and the strengthening US dollar.
 

Several large European economies have had to reimpose lockdowns as caseloads rise, while vaccination programs are slowing due to concerns about side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine that was being widely distributed in Europe.
 

US heating oil and gasoline also both fell more than 5%.
 

"A best-case scenario for demand recovery had been priced into this market. Everyone was celebrating the vaccine rollout and reduced restrictions,"