British vote to exit European Union, EU, trickled down to slump in the price of crude oil in the international market yesterday. Oil prices slumped by more than six percent after results of a landmark referendum showed Britain had voted to leave the European Union, causing huge market uncertainty and fracturing European efforts to forge greater unity.
Also, Reuters reported that oil prices fell about five percent in New York’s morning trade on Friday after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union led to huge risk aversion and rally in safe havens like the U.S. dollar that could derail a three-month long recovery in global oil markets.
Financial markets have been worried for months about what Brexit, or a British exit from the European Union, would mean for Europe’s future, but were clearly not fully factoring in the risk of a leave vote. The dollar index (.DXY) jumped two percent, it’s most in a day since October 2008, while sterling (GBP=) collapsed to a 31-year low after British Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned to remain in the EU, said he would stand down by October.
A rallying dollar makes oil and other commodities denominated in the greenback costlier for holders of the euro and other currencies. Brent crude (LCOc1) was down 4.5 percent, or $2.30, at $48.61 a barrel by 10:46 a.m. EDT (1446 GMT). It had fallen 6 percent earlier to $47.54. U.S. crude (CLc1) was down 4.2 percent, or $2.10, at $48.01.
Analysts in oil markets sought to put the crisis in perspective even as some $2 trillion was wiped off equity bourses worldwide, and money poured into safe-haven gold and government bonds. “This is an historic event and will not be swept under the rug very quickly,” said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute in New York.
“That …Read More
Source:: Nigerian Pilot
