Oil falls below $50 a barrel for the first time since April 2009

[jakeXT]

Source: Reuters

The selloff in oil continued with little pause into the new year with U.S. crude futures tumbling below $50 a barrel on Monday for the first time since April 2009 on fears of a global supply glut.

U.S. crude's front-month contract fell to $49.95, down 5 percent from Friday's close, before recovering to $50.20 by 11:36 a.m. EDT

Brent crude for February also hit a fresh 5-½-year low, falling as low as $52.66 per barrel before rebounding back above $53.

The two crude oil benchmarks have now lost more than half of their value since mid-2014.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102308102#.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Going to be ugly in the next few days.

With most of the Stock Trades done as computer algorithmic trades,once below 50 we go to 40. And the folks that get slammed are the 401k's and anyone who has ETF's in their IRA's. Margin calls will be big time starting at close today. This is just the tip of a major wealth transfer that is about to take place. Can you imagine the grins on CITI Corps face today. We got or asses covered baby,thank you Mr. President and Mr. McTurtle,sure do like that new Derivative Protection Bill.

[jakeXT]

3. They sure sound confident

“OPEC should not expect to see any impact on U.S. shale growth in the first half of the year and the impact in the second half is being attenuated significantly by producer hedging,” says Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup, one of the biggest U.S. banks involved hedging.

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/01/05/revamped-oil-hedges-may-test-opecs-patience/?__lsa=9d75-3a84

[Fred Sanders]

4. Families saving 1200 dollars a year x tens of millions of families....an annual $100 billion tax cut .

[wordpix]

2. this happened before it went to $4/gal. last time

The oil cartels are manipulating the price, maybe to compete with natural gas. Just hope the price stays down.

[FBaggins]

5. There is a difference however

The last time around was a demand collapse caused by the weakest global economy in decades. This time it's caused by surplus supply .