Oil just smashed below $30
Oil just crashed past the $30 (£20.85) mark for the second time in a week, as sentiment on the world's most watched commodity continues to stink.
As of 9:10 a.m. GMT (4:10 a.m. ET) both major benchmarks, West Texas Intermediate, and Brent crude, are trading at below the magical $30 mark, with WTI leading the losses. It has fallen by nearly 4.8% in trade so far today, and at pixel time is worth $29.71 ($20.65) per barrel.
Brent isn't faring much better, seeing losses of roughly 3.2%
Friday isn't the first time this week that oil has dipped under the milestone. On Wednesday, Brent hit $29.96 per barrel briefly, before recovering to close the day above the $30 mark.
The biggest worry traders have right now is the possibility that oil ends a trading session below $30, which many fear will trigger an even bigger sell-off, and make $20, or even $15 oil a reality.
Oil's seemingly relentless march towards zero is being driven by a few crucial factors right now. Fears about China are everywhere in the markets, as the country's stock markets continue to suffer in the first couple of weeks of 2016.
All three of China's major indexes close down by around 3% on Friday afternoon, totally erasing any gains made on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite is down 18% so far on the year, and has now hit its lowest level since December 2014.
The continuing, enormous glut of oil created by the OPEC nations, led by Saudi Arabia is also proving a huge challenge to global oil traders.
Europe's markets haven't reacted well to the renewed slump in both Chinese equities, and oil, and all the continent's major indexes are trading in the red so far on Friday.
2016 just doesn't get any better.