COMMODITIES CORNER: Oil’s Backed Itself Into A Corner

TOKYO (Dow Jones) — Imagine what it would be like to watch oil prices climb to a spectacular record high of $150 per barrel and then leave the planet for the next several months.

That’s practically what happened to me.

With much fanfare, oil hit an all-time high in July. I dropped off the face of the oil world four months later, and I’ve come back to find nothing less than a shocking drop in prices.

Here in Tokyo, I take a fresh look on a market I’d been covering for more than 10 years and realize just how much has happened in such a short amount of time. You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again: Oil’s loss of 54% last year was the biggest on record — since futures started trading in 1983.

And some analysts say that it’s only a matter of time before the industry gets a visible hit in the form of long-term growth.

CNN Money