Oil rebounds after Omicron variant fears recede

Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferre details crude oil's comeback after initial market fears from the Omicron variant begin to subside.

Video transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Oil prices rallying today on expectations for higher energy demand, also lockdown fears starting to recede. And Saudi Aramco raises its official selling price for all grades of crude into Asia. We've got Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferre here now to wrap up the day in oil. It was a busy one, Ines.

INES FERRE: It sure was quite a rebound for oil today, with WTI crude January futures settling at $69.49 a barrel, up more than 5% today. That's after the omicron variant comments from Dr. Anthony Fauci over the weekend, basically saying that the omicron variant is not as severe as feared. And that was really helping oil prices today. So traders assuming that there will be less of an impact on demand going forward if this variant is less aggressive, then maybe last week's prices may have been a bargain.

Taking a look at Brent crude, Brent crude up 4.9%. Saudi Arabia's state oil producer, Saudi Aramco, raised January selling prices on crude oil sold to the US and also Asia by $0.80 a barrel. Now this, of course, despite that output hike, which OPEC+ agreed to continue in January. All of this really signaling that demand will stay strong despite the threat of the omicron variant, Alexis, Karina.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, thanks a lot, Ines.