April 2020: Oil Apocalypse

The world changed on April 20, 2020. The soon-to-expire May contract for the U.S. oil benchmark went into a free fall to finish deeply in negative territory on Monday, an unprecedented circumstance. The idea that a barrel of oil could be priced negatively, WORTH LESS THAN ZERO, was previously unthinkable, but on this fateful day it was a reality. A dual demand-supply shock caused this crazy scenario to unfold. Oil is often called the lifeblood of the global economy so the scale of shock seen in April should be a cause for concern for all of us and is hopefully not a harbinger of something more dreadful to come.