Oil prices dropped 2 percent on Wednesday as U.S. equity markets broadly fell, even though energy traders worried about shrinking Iranian supply from U.S. sanctions and kept an eye on Hurricane Michael, which closed some U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output. Brent crude LCOc1 futures fell $1.91, or 2.3 percent, to settle at $83.09 a barrel. The global benchmark posted a 1.3 percent gain on Tuesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures fell $1.79 to settle at $73.17 a barrel, a 2.4 percent loss.
U.S. stocks markets skidded, on track for the biggest daily decline since April, and the sell-off intensified as the day wore on as rising U.S. Treasury yields and trade policy related worries sent investors fleeing for safety. “As long as we continue to see broad-based weakness in the equity sector, that’s going to start spilling over into other areas as well. One , in particular,will be energy because it’s all about economic expectations,” said Brian LaRose, a technical analyst at United-ICAP.