US WTI crude oil below $27 as MSCI’s benchmark global stock index enters bear market territory
US crude oil dipped below $27 per barrel today, while the MSCI's benchmark global stock index fell into a bear market.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, slumped 5.73 per cent to $26.83 per barrel. And Brent, the global benchmark, shed 4.35 per cent to $27.51.
Concern over lower for even longer oil prices have dominated Davos, an annual meeting of global political and business elites. Glencore chairman Tony Hayward told Bloomberg that oil prices will hover around $30 per barrel for some time, while UBS chairman Alex Weber thinks they could fall even lower.
Read more: Experts warn the FTSE 100 is on the brink as global market volatility continues
This comes as global markets plummeted on fears about the slump in oil markets and a slowdown in economic growth in countries such as China.
The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 2.9 per cent, bringing it through the threshold for a bear market. This is when a market falls more than 20 per cent from an all-time peak, suggesting the dominate trend is downwards, rather than a simple correction.
Today, Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100 slipped into a bear market, following in the steps of Japan's Nikkei.
They joined the French Cac40, the German Dax, the Russian main market and the Shanghai Composite which all entered into bear territory earlier this week.