Brent crude extends biggest one-day plunge since ’11 on glut
By Bloomberg
Brent crude extended its biggest one-day collapse in four years amid speculation OPEC will refrain from eliminating a glut while demand growth slows to its lowest since 2009.
Brent slumped as much as 2 percent to $83.37 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Yesterday it plunged 4.3 percent, the biggest one-day drop since September 2011. Global oil demand will rise by 650,000 barrels a day this year, the Paris-based agency said in its monthly report yesterday. That's a reduction of 250,000 from a prior projection.
"The market is currently in a state of panic as no one is prepared to put a hand under it," Ole Sloth Hansen, an analyst at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said by e-mail.
Brent for November settlement, which expires tomorrow, was $1.33 lower at $83.71 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange as of 9:03 a.m. local time. The more-active December contract was down $1.31 at $84.08. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $3.15 to WTI, compared with $3.20 yesterday.
--