Suddenly, Oil Below $40 a Barrel Doesn’t Seem So Far-Fetched
- About $7 million of August $39 puts change hands Friday
- ‘Lottery ticket’ signals fear, likely oil recovery: analyst
This article is for subscribers only.
It’s come to this for the beleaguered oil market: a big bet that prices are about to sink to their lowest level in more than a year.
About $7 million worth of options changed hands Friday that will pay off if West Texas Intermediate crude falls beneath $39 a barrel by mid-July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. WTI, which hovered around $46 Friday, hasn’t traded below $39 since April 2016, though it’s been dropping like a stone in recent weeks.