Crude oil futures ended marginally higher on Monday as hopes for a pick-up in demand later this year helped arrest last week’s broad sell-off. Support also came in as British drug major AstraZeneca Plc announced positive late-stage trial results of its covid-19 vaccine AZD1222 in the United States. The company said the US trial met the primary efficacy endpoint in preventing COVID-19 at interim analysis. It demonstrated statistically significant vaccine efficacy of 79% at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% efficacy at preventing severe disease and hospitalization. However, upside remained capped as the UK and Germany are reportedly looking to extend lockdown measures in some places to curb the spread of the coronavirus infections.
Crude oil futures for April rose 13 cents or 0.2 percent to settle at $61.55 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude added 6 cents or 0.1 percent to settle at $64.59 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.