Oil Spirals Below $47 as Dark Clouds Envelop Demand Outlook

Investor doubts grow despite OPEC+ group’s pledged reduction
WTI falls 7.3%, on track for worst quarter since 2014 crash

Bill Baruch, Blue Line Futures president, talks about the sentiment surrounding oil at $50 a barrel. Source: Bloomberg)

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By Alex Nussbaum

December 18, 2018 at 2:30 AM UTC

Updated on

December 18, 2018 at 10:43 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Economic jitters and surging supplies from the U.S. to Russia hammered oil again, with crude suffering its biggest decline in more than three weeks.

Futures slid 7.3 percent in New York on Tuesday, putting prices on track for their worst quarterly loss since the start of the last oil market crash in late 2014. Anxieties over growth swirled as Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump in a Beijing speech and American investors braced for an interest-rate hike. Another late-afternoon fizzle for U.S. equities added to the dour outlook.