While it looked like they were headed towards the $90 a barrel level, oil prices hit a wall in the spring. Rattled investors who worried about the direction of the global economy shunned black gold in favor of real gold as a means of preserving capital.
But don't be fooled. The spring retreat simply set the stage for a second-half rally.
After starting the year at about $81 a barrel, prices climbed as high as $86 a barrel before plunging to $64 on May 25.
At work in that period was the same shaky market sentiment that wreaked havoc on global equities. Fears that rising debt levels in Europe and other developed economies would lead to another financial meltdown, and that China and other emerging markets would not be able to sustain their high levels of growth robbed oil prices of the momentum they'd built up last year. (more)
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