Crude oil futures were steady in afternoon Asia trade Monday after the equities market firmed, but analysts pointed out that global indices were still sensitive to headlines on the coronavirus outbreak. At 2:30 pm Singapore time (0630 GMT), the April ICE Brent crude futures rose 4 cents/b (0.07%) from Friday’s settle at $54.51/b, while the NYMEX March light sweet crude contract rose 5 cents/b (0.10%) at $50.37/b. “After Asian futures opened, some recovery strength was observed, with the PBOC offering its first batch of special re-lending funds as it seeks to combat the outbreak. China has too stated that it will spend at least US$10 billion to control the current situation,” said Samuel Siew, investment analyst at Phillip Futures. Siew, however, pointed out that they remained cautious, given that global indices are sensitive to virus […]