Price of oil recovers after bad week

AP/Fuel Fix:

Global stock markets were steady on Thursday as investors balanced hopes for new financial aid against more evidence of the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic lockdown. The price of oil recovered further after a spectacular crash this week.

The U.S. House was expected to vote Thursday on a $483 billion proposal to deliver more loans to small businesses and aid to hospitals after the Senate approved it on Tuesday. EU leaders, meanwhile, were expected to approve Thursday a financial aid package worth 540 billion euros ($587 billion).

After Asian markets largely closed higher, France's CAC 40 stock index rose 0.4%to 4,428. Germany's DAX fell 0.2% to 10,399 and Britain's FTSE 100 was flat at 5,768. U.S. shares appeared set for a quiet open, with Dow industrials futures down 0.2% and S&P 500 futures steady.

The new aid packages in the U.S. and Europe would come on top of huge amounts of existing financial support. The U.S. Congress has approved more than $2 trillion in aid already. EU institutions and nations have already deployed around 3.3 trillion euros ($3.6 trillion).

That, plus massive support for markets from central banks, has helped stocks recover somewhat. The S&P 500 is up 25% since a low in late March. The index has roughly halved its loss from its record set in February.

Investors are still bracing for a severe, painfully deep recession after businesses shut down worldwide in hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Surveys of business managers in Europe showed a record fall in activity.

Even as depressing economic and health reports pile up, some investors are looking ahead to parts of the economy reopening as infections level off in some areas.
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Benchmark U.S. crude added $1.53 to $15.31 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.44 to $21.81 per barrel.
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The recovery from negative territory demonstrated that the crash was a limited event caused by a combination of weak demand and futures coming due at a time of limited storage.  The price still remains weak and probably will continue to be weak until the restrictions of movement are lifted and people can get back to work.  That is starting to happen in Texas and other states.  It will probably happen slowest in blue states that are more dependent on mass transit.

The red-state model of less dense living conditions and people relying on cars appears to have spared those states the worst of the Coronavirus.  It has not spared the devastation of the collapse of the oil market in energy-producing areas.