Delta Cases Rise in Mainland China Oil declined for a second day as the spread of Covid-19’s delta variant in China threatened to disrupt the recovery in global crude consumption. West Texas Intermediate futures ended Tuesday’s session down 1% at the lowest closing price in almost two weeks. Nearly half of China’s 32 provinces have been gripped by the latest outbreak in Asia’s largest oil market, with 5% of worldwide short-term oil demand potentially at risk, according to calculations by China National Petroleum Corp. The price drop was tempered somewhat by a rally in equities trading and the “ potential hijack ” of a ship in the Gulf of Oman. “China demand concerns because of the renewed restrictions from the viral spread were what caused the earlier weakness,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. Meanwhile, in the U.S., crude stockpiles fell 879,000 barrels last week […]