Oil slipped below $61 a barrel this morning, Reuters reports, dragged lower by weakness in some other commodity markets, although threats to Middle East crude supplies and expectations lower prices may prompt a slowdown in U.S. output limited the fall.
Silver fell by up to 5% and gold snapped a three-day rally. Investors in those commodities remained cautious after a breakdown of debt talks between Greece and Eurozone finance ministers.
“I think it all started in silver with squeezing out of long positions, then spilled over to gold and then to oil,” says Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank.
Brent crude fell to 97 cents to $60.43 a barrel as of about 9:30 this morning. It reached a 2015 high of $62.57 on Monday. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.80 per barrel to $50.98.
Brent has still jumped by about 35% in the last four weeks, supported by a sharp fall in U.S. oil drilling. It had reached $45.19 on Jan. 13, the lowest in almost six years, down from $115 in June.
