Brent oil prices open today’s trading session back near $100 a barrel as investors flee stock markets worldwide, bringing oil futures lower still, highlighting just how quickly commodity markets can swing in the throes of a crisis. Latest Brent Oil Price In London, Brent crude oil futures for September 2011 delivery was trading at $101.94 a barrel, 07.15 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange. Earlier today, Brent oil prices slumped $4.68, or 4.5 percent, to $99.06 a barrel, surrendering the psychologically important $100 a barrel level. Oil Prices to Continue Decline? Indeed, for the oil market the sudden compression of risk has resulted in benchmark oil prices shedding between $10 to $15 over the span of just 10 days as traders fret over the state of the global economy. And unfortunately for the oil bulls, analysts at Commerzbank offered a bleak outlook. “Further losses can be expected in the near term, as financial investors should reduce risk positions on the back of high risk aversion and the uncertain economic outlook.” Crude oil traders often look to stock markets as an indicator of overall investor confidence and falling indices across Europe as well as the sharp sell off across Asian stockmarkets has done little to settle their nerves. Amrita Sen, analyst at Barclays Capital, said: “We expect near-term pressure on prices to persist until the flurry of negative economic data in both the US and eurozone subsides.”

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