Oil falls 4% on slowdown, recession concerns

On Friday, crude oil prices fell to a nine-month low as recession fears are sweeping across global risk assets and the US dollar continued this year’s advancement to reach a fresh two-decade high against rival currencies. At the time of writing, Brent trades at $84.72 per barrel while WTI trades at $78.6 per barrel.

Earlier on the day, West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 3.8% to $80.35 per barrel, the lowest price since January. The decline was later trimmed to 3.4%. Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost 3.2% to $87.41, its lowest price since January.

WTI was steering toward weekly loss of more than 5% and Brent headed for a decline of more than 4% for the week. The threat of a global activity slowdown and even recession continues to sour markets’ sentiment and consequently impact oil prices, with widespread monetary tightening over the last two days fueling fears of a significant hit to growth.