He Petroleum It ended this Wednesday at its lowest closing price level since December, affected by the turmoil in the banking sector in the United States and Europe.
the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oilA benchmark for the United States, it tumbled 5.21 percent to $67.61 for the April-delivery contract, after falling as low as $65.65 during the session, a bottom in more than 15 months.
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Since Friday, WTI has lost almost 12 percent.
While in London the north sea brent barrel for May delivery lost 4.80 percent to $73.69.
After a pause on Tuesday, fears about the situation in the banking sector returned to the markets. The bad winds came from Credit Suisse, which fell hard on the stock market and was the target of doubts about its financial soundness.
«It is a bank that counts and the risk of contagion (to the rest of the sector) will not dissipate anytime soon,» Oanda’s Edward Moya said in a note. «Commodities are often a signal that heralds recession concerns,» said Matt Smith of Kpler.
«We have more and more fears for the economy and, consequently, oil falls,» he added. Investors see «direct parallels with previous recessions triggered by the banking sector, particularly the 2008 financial crisis», when oil «tanked», explains Stephen Innes, SPI AM.
During periods of strong instability, «investors tend to withdraw from risky assets such as oil and invest in safer sectors,» favoring safe-haven securities, remarked Giovanni Staunovo, from UBS.
Since Friday, WTI has lost almost 12 percent.
For Phil Flynn, of Price Futures Group, «crude oil takes the brunt because many are exposed to oil, with financing (to that industry) and also because many have trading activity (purchase and sale)» of oil in the markets.
The analyst explained that the slight recovery at the end of the day occurred after reports that the Swiss government was in talks with Credit Suisse to try to find a way out of the crisis.
Also this Wednesday, the weekly report of the US Energy Information Agency (EIA)), reported an increase of 1.6 million barrels in commercial crude oil reserves in the United States.
This is the tenth rise in 11 weeks, news that is putting downward pressure on prices.