TOKYO -- Even in a world becoming more used to the convulsions of the coronavirus pandemic, the breakdown in oil trading -- turning the price negative for the first time in history on Monday, followed by more turmoil on Tuesday -- has been astonishing.
West Texas Intermediate, a reference benchmark for U.S. oil trading, plummeted to a barely comprehensible -$37 per barrel on Monday. At any price below zero, sellers of oil are paying buyers to take it off their hands.
