With billions of people staying home around the world due to the coronavirus, physical demand for crude has dried up.
"What the energy market is telling you is that demand isn't coming back anytime soon, and there's a supply glut," said Kevin Flanagan, head of fixed income strategy at WisdomTree Asset Management in New York. Year to date, the energy index has lost 45%, by far the worst performer among 11 sectors.
Weathering the broad market sell-off, Amazon rose 0.8% and Netflix jumped 3.4%. Those companies have benefited from additional demand as millions of people stay home due to the coronavirus. Netflix reports its quarterly results on Tuesday after the bell.
Helped by a $2 trillion US government package to stimulate the economy, and by bets that the virus was nearing a peak in the United States, the S&P 500 has climbed over 25% from its March low.
The benchmark index remains almost 17% below its February record high, and analysts have warned of a deep economic slump from the halt in business activity and millions of layoffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.44% to end at 23,650.44 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.79% to 2,823.16. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.03% to 8,560.73. In extended trade, International Business Machines Corp rose 0.5% after it posted quarterly revenue slightly lower than Wall Street expected, but beat profit targets.
During Monday's session, volume on US exchanges was 12.3 billion shares, compared to a 13.4 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.99-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.62-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 20 new lows.