OIL is in FREE FALL

Oil prices are freefalling.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, fell almost 2% on Tuesday to dive below $40 a barrel for the first time since February 2009.

Here's what that looked like:

The price is now hovering around $40.12.

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices, the US benchmark, were also off almost 2%. The price fell as low as $36.90 a barrel, a six-year low, before recovering slightly.

Here's that chart:

Oil prices have been falling steadily since a meeting of the oil producing cartel OPEC on Friday. The group left their production targets unchanged despite the price crash.

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