Oil Prices Rise As Fears Of Omicron Lockdowns Subside

Oil prices rose early on Tuesday for the second day in a row, as traders are cautiously optimistic that the new Omicron COVID variant would not lead to massive lockdowns around the world to the point of severely reducing global oil demand.   As of 10:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, WTI Crude was up 2.85% at $71.55 and Brent Crude had gained 2.30% to $74.86. Oil prices had started to rebound on Monday after Saudi Arabia signaled optimism about demand by hiking its official January crude oil selling prices for Asia and the United States—its biggest…