The coronavirus pandemic is hurting the world economy in some extreme ways. One of the most extreme is the distortion affecting the US market for oil. On Monday the price of American crude fell below zero for the first time in history. The reason for the one-day collapse was in part technical; amid a plunge in demand, an important one-month futures contract expired the following day. With storage running low, traders holding the derivative contract found themselves with nowhere to put the oil. The owners of supertankers are among the surprise winners of the crisis — day rates to hire the vessels and their oil tanks have jumped fivefold.
新型冠狀病毒大流行正以一些極端方式傷害世界經濟。其中最極端的方式之一就是扭曲美國石油市場。週一，美國原油價格史上首次跌至零以下。單日暴跌的部分原因是技術性的；在需求銳減的情況下，一項重要的一月期石油期貨合約將於次日到期。由於剩餘的儲存空間不多，持有該衍生品合約的交易員發現，他們無處存放即將交割的原油。超級油輪的船東是這場危機中意外的贏家之一，其油輪及儲油罐的日租費用已上漲4倍。