Oil Prices Bounce Back After ‘Black Friday’ Collapse

Oil prices gained over 5% early on Monday, as traders were assessing the threat to demand from the Omicron Covid variant and the potential pause of monthly increases in production from the OPEC+ group. As of 9:57 a.m. EST on Monday, WTI Crude was back to above $70 per barrel, at $72.28, up 6.25% on the day. The U.S. benchmark slumped to $69 on Friday when the market was panicking over Omicron, the new heavily mutated coronavirus variant detected in South Africa, which the WHO classified as a “variant of concern.” On Monday, Brent Crude…