Oil prices continue to crumble, stocks around the world drop

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil’s chaotic collapse deepened, and stocks around the world dropped on Tuesday as markets remain upside down amid the economic carnage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

A day after oil futures plunged below zero for the first time, traders in one corner of the US crude market were still close to paying others to take it off their hands.

That’s a market quirk created by a glut of oil, which has traders running out of places to store it in the near term.

Prices are still above zero for oil elsewhere in the world and for deliveries further into the future.

But they slid sharply Tuesday on the same ultimate concern: A global economy incapacitated by the virus outbreak doesn’t need to burn as much fuel.

Airplanes are parked, cars are garaged and factories are idled with millions of workers losing their jobs every week.

The crumbling oil market dragged on stocks, and energy producers around the world sank sharply from Exxon Mobil in Texas to Total in France.

The S&P 500 was down nearly 1.5% after the first half hour of trading, following larger losses across Europe and Asia.

Treasury prices rose, sending yields lower, in another sign of the worry washing over markets.

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