by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
White knuckle moments as nothing goes to heck in a straight line?
The crude oil market had a white-knuckles moment today. WTI futures plunged intraday from $126.82 a barrel to $103 a barrel for a few moments, as the bottom just fell out after the UAE called for OPEC+ to increase production, followed up by Iraq which said that it could increase production if OPEC+ asks. A production increase might actually happen because selling more oil at these prices would be great for a whole slew of OPEC countries, and they’d love to do it.
The announcement worked to bring the price down, after having hit a panicky $130 earlier this week, though I don’t think talking the price down was the goal; OPEC generally doesn’t talk down the price. That’s the job of US Presidents.