Oil price down amid global sell off

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down 0.8 per cent at $49.94 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, was off 1 per cent at $48.41. Prices had been about 1 per cent lower through much of the Asian session.

Prices have slid in recent days amid growing nervousness in global markets, with investors rattled by the UK’s “Brexit” polls, as well as weak US jobs data that have scuttled the prospect of a rate rise from the Federal Reserve tomorrow and brought the global growth outlook back into the spotlight.

Last Tuesday, WTI closed above $50 a barrel for the first time since July 21, also making it the first time since then that both benchmarks ended above that level.

Supply disruptions (in Canada and Nigeria) as well as receding concerns about an economic hard landing in China had helped underpin gains up to that point.