Oil prices fell early on Friday amid surging new coronavirus infections in the United States, which had market participants worried about the U.S. oil demand recovery trend. As of 9:20 a.m. EDT on Friday, WTI Crude was down 1.28 percent at $40.13, and Brent Crude traded down 1.23 percent at $42.61. Prices recovered somewhat later in the afternoon but were still trading about 1% off. Oil prices were still headed for a weekly gain this week as low supply from OPEC, encouraging economic data from the U.S. and China, and a drop in U.S. commercial inventories had supported prices earlier this week. However, the U.S. reported on Thursday its highest level of new daily coronavirus cases so far—at more than 55,000, raising fears that a surge in infections will dent the gradual oil demand recovery in America, which consumers 20 percent of the world’s daily oil supply. Nearly half […]