Crude oil is tumbling
Crude oil continued its slump towards $40 per barrel again on Tuesday.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York fell more than 2% to as low as $42.75.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that as part of the budget deal reached between Congressional leaders and the White House last night, the US plans to sell millions of barrels of crude in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) between 2018 and 2025.
The sale would total 8% of the 695 million barrels, and it's the second time the government has raised cash from the reserves according to the report. The SPR is an emergency stockpile held by the Department of Energy.
After the market close, the American Petroleum Institute will report its weekly numbers on crude oil inventories, followed by the Energy Information Administration tomorrow morning. The EIA has reported stockpile builds for the past four weeks.
Here's a chart showing the recent drop in crude oil.