Oil prices continue to decline after last week’s drop, which was the most significant since last summer.
Negative sentiment in the oil market is due to concerns that the crisis in the U.S. banking sector can provoke a recession in the U.S. economy, reports MarketWatch.
The quotations of May futures for Brent oil on London’s ICE Futures Exchange as of 7:04 a.m. were $72.29 a barrel, which is $0.68 (0.9%) lower than the price at the close of the previous session. Those contracts fell $1.73 (2.3%) to $72.97 a barrel on Friday, the lowest level since December 20.
The price of WTI April futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell $0.6 per barrel to $66.14 on Monday morning. The contract value fell by $1.61 (2.4%) to $66.74 a barrel at the end of previous session. This is the minimum since December 3.
Brent crashed by 11.9% in five trading days and WTI by 13%. This is the most significant weekly decline respectively since last August for European oil and since June for U.S. oil.
“Oil prices have been particularly susceptible to negativity amid the current market turmoil,” believes Commerzbank commodity analyst Barbara Lambrecht, referring to problems in the U.S. banking sector. At the same time, she believes “the drop in oil prices is excessive and mostly speculative.
