Commodities

​Oil market trading as if we're already 'in a full blown recession': RBC analyst

The drastic drop in oil prices has one analyst suggesting that the commodity is being traded as if the global economy is already in a recession.
 
Crude oil prices sank 10 per cent in the past two-and-a-half days to approximately US$68 per barrel, following the market selloff that came from investors fearing a global banking crisis. That pressure pushed the oil market to reflect recessionary pricing, Michael Tran, managing director of global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in an interview on Thursday. 
 
“This is a (oil) market effectively trading as if the economy is already in a full blown recession,” he stated.  
 
Despite the drastic swing to the downside, Tran noted that the factors pulling down the price of crude have little to do with the energy sector, and for this reason, the commodity is likely to rebound. 
 
“Everybody knows why oil prices are coming off. It’s not an oil market specific issue, it’s a broad macro issue,” he explained. 
 
Tran is calling for oil prices to climb in the second half of this year amid China's economic reopening, and heightened demand coming from India. He anticipates that once the panic settles within the markets over the course of the next few days or weeks, oil prices will climb. 
 
“Fear is fear, and we’re seeing a lot investors really just pull back and just kind of take a breath right now,” he said.