Brent crude oil: back in a bear market

The price of Brent crude oil has fallen by more than 20% since May – past the level that marks a bear market.

Oil prices are back in a bear market, says Matthew DiLallo on Motley Fool. The price of Brent crude oil had rallied 50% since the start of the year to a high of $75 a barrel in April. But price falls of as much as 5% last week took cumulative losses since May past the 20% level that marks a bear market. Brent crude is now at $60 a barrel.

"The oil market is as complicated as I've seen it in a very long time," Douglas King of the Merchant Commodity Fund tells the Financial Times. Under normal conditions, numerous supply problems would have seen the price of "black gold" jump: oil exporters' cartel Opec and allies have been cutting output and US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela are also squeezing the market.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.