WTI tumbles 4% to fresh 17-month lows

• Crude oil resumes and tumbles on Christmas eve session. 
• Wall Street also extends losses, Dow Jones down 15% so far in December. 

WTI (oil futures on NYMEX) continued to slide on Monday, accelerating to the downside on US hours. The barrel bottomed at $42.65, the lowest since June 2017. It was about to end the session with a clear bearish tone under pressure and posting a loss of 4%. Crude oil continues to be unable to find support. From the October peak has fallen 45%. 

Liquidity conditions were thin during Monday’s trade and could have contributed to the magnitude of the decline. However, the trend still points to the downside, and no signals of a potential correction are seen, other than extreme oversold readings. 

Equity prices during the Christmas Eve session (Wall Street won’t open on Tuesday) dropped sharply in the US with stock indices hitting fresh 1-year lows. December’s performance so far is the worst in years. The Dow Jones lost almost 3%  as the negative tone continues amid uncertainties about the global economic outlook for next year, and also on the back of US political dynamics. Today US President Trump criticized hardly the Federal Reserve and Democrats. 

Technical levels