Oil prices ready to recover after $100 fall

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil’s collapse by more than $100 a barrel has made July’s all-time high above $147 seem a distant memory but many analysts now expect a rebound and say crude’s bear market may prove to have been exceptionally brief.

Oil prices could already have hit rock-bottom for 2008 when they touched lows near $40 a barrel this month, and are poised to climb despite the dire outlook for the global economy.

Cumulative production cuts by OPEC — which is expected to slash output further this week — as well as the need to encourage future investment in oil exploration have led some analysts to make cautiously bullish noises over the past week.

This view is reinforced by the precedent of past price movements, mapped by technical analysts who study charts.

Reuters