Covid-19: Brent falls 10%, WTI below $30 as coronavirus spreads

Covid-19: Brent falls 10%, WTI below $30 as coronavirus spreads

Brent fell by 10 per cent on Monday, and US crude to below $30, as emergency rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and its global counterparts failed to tame markets and China's factory output plunged at the sharpest pace in 30 years amid the spread of coronavirus.. Brent crude was down by $3.36, or 9.9 per cent, to $30.49 a barrel by 1134GMT.. The front-month price had risen by $1 earlier in the session.. To combat the economic fallout of the pandemic, the Fed on Sunday cut its key rate to near zero, triggering an unscheduled easing by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to a record low as markets in Asia opened for trading this week.. The Bank of Japan later stepped in by easing monetary policy further in an emergency meeting.. The measures failed to calm the investors, and stock markets weakened again.. "The price response is understandable given that lower interest rates and new bond purchasing programmes will do nothing to combat the current weakness of oil demand," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said.. China's industrial output fell by a much larger than expected 13.5 per_cent in January-February from the same period a year earlier, the weakest