Oil’s Drop Below $50 May Be Just the Start as Demand Swoons

(Bloomberg) Oil has fallen to a six-month low, and hopes of a quick rebound are fading as demand heads into an autumn swoon.

Brent crude tumbled below $50 on Monday for the first time since January. Gasoline fell the most in almost three years.

The slump may have further to go. U.S. refineries, which turned a record amount of crude into gasoline during July, typically slow down from August through October for maintenance.

“We still have a lot of global oversupply,” Michael Wittner, head of oil-market research at Société Générale in New York, said on Bloomberg TV Monday. “We’re getting close to the autumn, [when] demand for crude and products hits a seasonal low point, so it’s hard to see where the uplift is going to come from.” .....................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-03/oil-s-drop-below-50-may-be-just-the-start-as-demand-swoons