Oil rallied on hopes regulators will aid production cuts via American shale producers, and on President Trump's threats to Iran in the Persian Gulf. Financial markets followed suit.

Markets are also looking past the Chinese coronavirus outbreak and associated lockdowns and discounting a V-shaped economic recovery in the second half of the year.

“The ultimate complication is that storing oil costs money, and storage facilities aren’t unlimited,” Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, told CNBC in an email. “Right now storage is scarce and thus expensive, so it’s not worth it to buy oil today and store it. The cost of storing exceeds the value today; thus the price is negative," wrote CNBC when discussing the recent price plunge for crude on international markets.

Economic data continued to show the spot impact of the pandemic on American business activity and employment.

Continuing Jobless Claims (Apr 10) printed at 15.976M vs 16.476M consensus estimate.

Initial Jobless Claims (Apr 17) printed at 4427k vs 4200k estimate.

Markit Manufacturing PMI (Apr) PREL printed at 36.9 vs 38 estimate.

Markit Services PMI (Apr) PREL printed at 27 vs 31.5 estimate.

New Home Sales (MoM) (Mar) printed at 0.627M vs 0.645M estimate.

Kansas Fed Manufacturing Activity (Apr) printed at -62.

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