Oil is taking another dive

The price of oil is sliding again on Thursday as the world’s most widely traded commodity yo-yos between gains and losses on an almost daily basis.

This morning, just after 8:15 a.m. GMT (3:15 a.m. ET) both major crude benchmarks are in negative territory, with Brent, the European mark, off by 1.14%, but still above $40 at $40.60 per barrel. WTI crude is down around 0.8%, to $37.98.

In four days of trading so far this week, oil has seen two days of gains, and two days of losses. Here’s how that looks:

Investing.com

Investing.com

The commodity has been seesawing wildly this week thanks largely to hugely conflicting opinions in the markets about where oil is headed. Some traders feel that oil has found a bottom and is headed towards higher ground, while others, including Goldman Sachs and Barclays, are convinced that the recent gains seen by oil are just a short-term blip in a depression that isn’t going to end any time soon.

Oil’s erratic movement is reflected by the high level of volatility in the oil market. CBOE’s oil volatility index is currently at some of its highest levels in a year. The index currently sits at 51.74 points. To put that into context, for much of the last year, it has been below 40 points:

Investing.com