Oil’s Dramatic Open Leaves Traders Puzzled After WTI Crashes
- Traders cutting long positions, algo selling touted as reasons
- US crude briefly sinks more than 7% in first minutes of trade
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After a wave of selling over the last week it was little surprise when US crude futures opened lower on Thursday, but few traders were braced for the 7.2% plunge that unfolded in the first dramatic minutes of trading.
West Texas Intermediate plummeted by almost $5 a barrel for a few seconds shortly after the open in Asia at 6 a.m. in Singapore, then recovered. When trading kicked off a couple of hours later in global benchmark Brent, it failed to respond in kind, merely shedding a little more than $1 a barrel.