Asian economies that appear to have a handle on the initial macroeconomic destruction caused by COVID-19 also happen to be prolific buyers of U.S. light sweet crude. The near-term economic shock of the coronavirus, or COVID-19 pandemic has been profound, and as a domino effect the price of the global economy’s poster commodity – crude oil – has taken a hammering. Largely predictable range-bound oil price oscillation seen for much of 2019, gave way in February 2020 to extreme volatility as soon as the human cost and economic upheaval caused by the virus in China, its point of origination, became clear. Subsequent collapse of OPEC+ on March 6 and sparring between Saudi Arabia and Russia, coupled with the global spread of the virus, then created a supply glut as well as a demand crisis in tandem. As oil threatened to slide below $20, OPEC scrambled back to the negotiating […]