Oil Plunges to $32-Handle, Chinese Stocks Crash and are Halted, Whiff of Mayhem Breaks out

[marmar]

Oil Plunges to $32-Handle, Chinese Stocks Crash and are Halted, Whiff of Mayhem Breaks out
by Wolf Richter • January 7, 2016


[font color="blue"]Why Oil Keeps Falling off the Chart[/font]

After having been through the greatest two-year loss on record, the price of oil plunged 9.6% on Wednesday and in evening trading. As I’m writing this, WTI hit $32.62 a barrel, a new low since the desperate depth of the Financial Crisis, when it very briefly kissed $30.28 a barrel on December 23, 2008, before bouncing off sharply.

This time, it’s serious. Brent, the global benchmark, has crashed to $32.75, an 11-year low. This isn’t a quick scare that happens during a Financial Crisis. It’s the result of a persistently growing glut.

Since the oil price plunge began in July 2014, every rally, every “opportunity of a lifetime” to buy oil “for cents on the dollar” has turned out to be a falling knife.

.....(snip)......

Whatever the daily hopes and fiascos that dominate the oil trade, two things remain fundamental: global production and consumption. And there, things are becoming uncomfortable.

In the fourth quarter, global production of crude oil and other liquids actually dropped, according to the EIA estimates, but so did global consumption. .................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/07/oil-plunges-to-32-handle-chinese-stocks-crash-and-are-halted-whiff-of-mayhem-breaks-out/

[EdwardBernays]

1. fictional wealth

losing imaginary value...

it's a great time if you're into told-you-so-ism...

[marmar]

2. True. In the end, it's all phantom wealth.

[EdwardBernays]

3. And yet

when it disappears the austerity programs it leaves in it's wake are all too real...

funny that...