United States

Any hopes for an early rebound in oil following last week's torrid plunge in WTI and Brent appear to be dashed, at least at the open, when WTI promptly tumbled below $48/barrel.

While there have been no materal adverse catalysts over the weekend, three factors are being mentioned by Sunday night trading desks as drivers behind the latest seloff.

First: price momentum has simply persisted from the Friday US selloff, as Asian funds catch up to the US action. 

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Over the weekend, Bank of America's volatility experts Jason Galazidis and his team, pointed out that while US equity vol remains at historic low levels, it is not just equities where market participants are remarkably complacent, and write that both US credit & Chinese equity hedges "are pricing a world almost free of risk."

Authored by Salmon Ghouri via OilPrice.com,

Time is of the essence. If you fail to comprehend future market conditions and fail to steer the ship in the right direction, it can lead to disaster. This is what we have learned during the past few years. OPEC’s failure to understand the future market conditions and speed of technological advancements has resulted in economic setbacks.

There may have been much more to the termination of US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, than meets the casual glance.