Crude oil tumbled to a 16-month low as OPEC's decision to slash production by 1.5 million barrels a day failed to ease concern that the global economic slump is curbing fuel demand.
"At this stage it looks like we are at the edge of a bottomless pit and prices are heading quickly toward $US50," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president of global energy futures at Macquarie Futures USA Inc. in New York. "OPEC really needed to take the bull by the horns and make a bigger cut."
The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to lower supply starting in November, oil ministers said today at a meeting in Vienna. Prices have dropped 56% from the record $US147.27 a barrel reached on July 11 as stock markets declined.
Bloomberg