Oil prices tanked today with mounting Covid cases in China and fears of aggressive rate hikes in the US. China reported rising daily covid infections and Chinese refiners have asked to reduce Saudi crude volume in December, also slowing Russian purchases. St Louis Fed President James Bullard said the basic monetary rule would require interest rates to rise to at least 5% which stricter assumptions recommend 7%. “It’s kind of a triple whammy. We’ve got COVID-19 cases rising in China, interest rates are continuing to rise here in the U.S. and now we’ve got a technical weakness in the market,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial. WTI traded down $3.95 or -4.6% to close at $81.64. Brent traded down $3.08 or -3.3% to close at $89.78.