Oil slips into the twilight zone as demand for crude has plummeted

Meanwhile, chancellor's Future Fund loans package is a welcome intervention

• Coronavirus - latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

These are the weirdest of times. Oil prices, which during the last crisis hit $147 a barrel, have just turned negative. That's right. Crude is so cheap they are giving it away.

So much for the idea of a top-level deal to put a floor under oil prices. Little more than a week ago, all the talk from Donald Trump was of how he had banged heads together and forced Russia and Saudi Arabia into production curbs that would bring global supplies of crude more into line with demand. On Monday night, the price of US benchmark crude was -$38 a barrel.