In a market where nobody seems to want to hold commodities, oil and its exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been hard hit by an brutal sell-off of oil futures.
Last week, price of crude oil dipped below $50 a barrel since its record of US$147 a barrel in July, writes Billy Fisher for TheStreet. Members of OPEC are scheduled to meet this month, just as fuel prices continue to sink further. Gas is at a national average of $1.83 a gallon as of Friday, while oil is still hovering around the $50 mark.
The deep plunge of oil prices is reflected in oil and energy ETFs such as:
- United States Oil Fund (USO): down 41.2% year-to-date
- SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (XOP): down 38.8% year-to-date