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Wall Street Rethinks What’s Possible in Week Oil Went Negative

  • Risk appetite cracks as subzero crude re-writes rules of game
  • Oil drama overshadows earnings, distracts from Europe crisis
A food delivery worker wearing a protective mask bikes past the New York Stock Exchange on April 21.
A food delivery worker wearing a protective mask bikes past the New York Stock Exchange on April 21.Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

The bar for shocks in financial markets these days is probably as high as it has ever been. Oil still managed to vault it.

Around markets it was another week for the history books, whose keepers must surely now be running low on ink. Oil didn’t just crash, it redefined what many people thought was possible by sinking deep into negative territory. Stocks fell, but managed to do so in their calmest sessions since the start of the crash. Treasuries and the dollar rose.