Oil prices dropped on Tuesday, falling below $100 a barrel, as China, the world’s largest oil importer, imposed new lockdowns to combat an outbreak of the coronavirus, moves that could threaten demand.
The swing in oil prices, which approached $130 a barrel last week, reverberated through the stock market: Airlines stocks rallied, and shares of oil producers slid.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped 7.4 percent to $99.91 a barrel, its lowest price since late February. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, fell 6.4 percent at $96.44 a barrel.
Over the past week, crude prices have plunged more than 20 percent, reversing much of the surge after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine added turmoil to an already-tight energy market. Tens of millions of residents in Chinese provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are under lockdown amid an outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Travel has been cut off between cities, production lines have stopped and malls have been closed.
The measures could snarl global supply chains that are still struggling to recover from pandemic disruptions by slowing down key factory and transportation networks. Companies in China, including Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics firm that assembles Apple iPhones, have suspended operations in the country.
The new measures have hammered the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong, where many Chinese companies are listed. With a drop of 5.7 percent on Tuesday, the index was…
