Crude oil continues to be in free fall.
On Friday, West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York were near the lowest levels since early 2009. WTI futures fell about 1% to as low as $36.66 per barrel.
Since the OPEC meeting earlier in December, when the cartel decided it would not reduce production, oil's slide has continued virtually uninterrupted. WTI is down nearly 20% since December 4.
Since then, we've received even more signs that the global supply glut is not going away anytime soon. On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration reported a build in US inventories by nearly 500 million barrels, against expectations for a decline in stockpiles.
And last night, hedge fund manager Jim Chanos said on CNBC that if he were a member of OPEC, he'd be pumping as much oil as possible now "because it might not be worth a whole lot by 2030."
His argument was less of a supply-glut one, and more to the point that electric and solar energy use is on the rise.
All this, and the dollar's continued rally, are keeping oil prices at multi-year lows.
Here's a chart showing the recent drop in WTI:
Investing.com