Oil prices hit one-year low after worst month since financial crisis

Oil prices are struggling at more than a one-year low following its worst month since the financial crisis ten years ago.

It has plunged 21 per cent during November, losing the returns it made throughout the year.

Europe’s main share indexes in London, Frankfurt and Paris all sank, and Wall Street futures were pointing down too after Chinese data released on Friday made for nervous Asian session.

Tech has also suffered this month with Apple suffering its worse month in a decade, plummeting by 18 per cent.

“Expectations at the start of the fourth quarter were for a melt-up in risky assets, but two of the biggest trends have been a reversal of some of the few returns we have seen this year, which have been in oil and in tech,” said head of macro strategy at State Street Global Markets’ Michael Metcalfe.

“Also the market seems to be going into the G20 meeting with very low expectations of a ceasefire in the trade war. That may very well be correct but politics has proved very hard to predict this year.”

Markets could be in for a volatile December if US president Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinpin fail to de-escalate their trade war at talks at this weekend’s G20 meeting in Argentina.

Chinese data released on Friday also showed that growth in their vast manufacturing sector had slowed this month for the first time in more than two years.

Trump has sent mixed messages ahead of the summit as to whether there would be a ceasefire in the trade war.

“I think we’re very close to doing something with China but I don’t know that I want to do it,” he said, having made a lucrative profit from the tariffs imposed on China.

In the oil markets, crude was starting to slip again having tried to steady on news that Russia is increasingly convinced it needs to reduce oil output along with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC and its allies are meeting in Vienna on Dec. 6-7. Brent and U.S. WTI crude were both down around 0.6 percent at $59.51(£52.99) per barrel and $51.38 a barrel.