Oil tumbles on risk aversion as Q4 starts; bulls look to OPEC
Investing.com — No market operates in a vacuum — including oil, no matter what the proponents of higher crude prices think.
Worries that inflation will rear its ugly head again to suppress demand in almost everything set off a wave of risk aversion on Monday that handed global markets an ominous start to the fourth quarter.
The dollar’s surge to a new 10-month high added to the weight of commodities denominated in the U.S. currency. The dollar shot up as a number of policy-makers at the Federal Reserve hinted on Tuesday at another rate hike in either November or December to keep inflation under control and nearer to the central bank’s 2% per annum target from a current 3.7%.
On the crude oil front, New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, and London’s Brent fell about 2% each, extending losses from Friday. The two crude benchmarks had risen nearly 30% in the third quarter, threatening a new round of chaos to economies in non-oil producing countries.
While September manufacturing data, via the Purchasing Managers Index, improved in both the United States and Europe, economists saw that as more of a work-off on inventories of raw materials in hold. The concern is how the global economy would fare for the rest of 2023 if energy prices continue rising without control, adding an onerous burden to overheads.
“The damage that can be done to the economy by high oil prices is very real and it’s completely delusional to think this is acceptable for the bulk of the world which does not produce oil but instead consumes it,” said John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital.
WTI for delivery in November settled at $88.82 — below the key $90 per barrel mark — after sliding $1.97, or 2.2%, on the day. The
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