Oil Price Sinks To $100 As Fear Of Recession Looms In US

Crude oil price has returned to a two months low on fear of a looming US recession.

West Texas Intermediate price fell to $97.97 by 18:01 GMT on Tuesday before it rose to $100.8 per barrel, while Brent Crude plunged to $101.56 by 17:06 GMT but later rose slightly above $102 per barrel.

Brent hovers around $104 per barrel as of 7:42am Lagos time on Wednesday, while WTI is trading down at $100.3 per barrel.

The last time oil traded at $100 was in May. Brent was at $123.58 a barrel on June 8, while WTI climbed to $122.11.

Other commodities like silver fell to its lowest level on Wednesday at $19 per ounce- the worst plunge since May 2020 when it traded $18 per ounce.

The odds for a possible US inflation is growing higher as Bloomberg Economics projects it at 38 per cent.

The price of oil and gas rose earlier this year after Russia invaded Ukraine late February.

Since the peak of oil prices, the US inflation has been on the surge- a 40-year high which is one of the factors that gave rise to the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates by 75 basis points to 1.75 per cent to combat inflationary pressures.

According to the US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, a further rise of either 50 or 75 basis points is expected in July which would bring the total increase for 2022 to 2.00-2.25 per cent.

Many of the biggest economies will fall into a recession within the next 12 months as central banks move to aggressively tighten monetary policy to fight surging inflation, according to a brokerage firm Nomura holdings.

Nomura said the euro zone, the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada will be hit by economic recession.

The US economy contracted more than previously estimated in the first quarter at 1.6 per cent.

Powell told the European Central Bank conference that “there is a risk” the U.S. central bank may slow the economy more than expected to tame inflation.