Oil steadied after slumping Wednesday with investors assessing global demand as China pushes on with its Covid Zero policy and central banks tighten monetary policy to fight inflation. West Texas Intermediate traded near $82 a barrel after collapsing by almost 6% to the lowest level since January. Several Chinese centers face anti-virus lockdowns, including the megacity of Chengdu , imperiling energy demand in the world’s biggest importer. Crude’s tumble in recent days has seen it break out of a trading range it had been in for much of the summer. Futures have been trading below key moving averages and forming bearish technical patterns that have compounded the recent selloff. Alongside that, key timespreads are pointing to a softer market than they were several months ago. “Recession woes, weak Chinese export/import data and COVID-related lockdowns are the primary price drivers at the moment,” said Tamas Varga an analyst at PVM […]