Dow ignores oil as OPEC continues to cast cloud over Europe

It was a curious day on the markets, as a quiet day in terms of announcements still led to large amounts of volatility as the world continued to react to the decision from OPEC.

All eyes were on the Dow this afternoon in order to see with how well it would deal with the oil situation. Like it has for much of the last month, poor figures, like oil, had no bearing on the Dow as it opened strongly at 17829.5, hitting a high of 17887.5 early after the bell. As the USA becomes more energy dependant, with in-house oil production a key part of that, America can easily weather the downward trajectory of oil prices in a way many other countries cannot.

With the US markets operating on shortened hours today, it is expected that the Dow will close at another record high, with no new announcements that can severely affect its pricing. Monday should see the fallout of this year’s Black Friday; at the moment it is too early to tell how successful this year’s big shopping day has been compared to other years.

The FTSE continued to be dragged down by oil’s slump, as both Enquest and Premier oil fell by over 15%. With no significant announcements from the UK, as well as a general quietness around the markets due to the Thanksgiving period, the FTSE had no way to break out of the bearish sentiment that has haunted it all week. Due to this the FTSE hit a week long low of 6726.3, a stark contrast to the 7 week highs of last Friday.

Similar to the FTSE, the DAX suffered at the slippery hands of Brent Crude oil. Oil counteracted any chance of positive sentiment stemming from Draghi’s comments yesterday, and has cast a dark cloud over the Draghi-inspired sunshine that had appeared at the start of the week. After opening at 9975.2, DAX fell to 9945.5 and hasn’t been able to rally any higher than this level. Eurozone figures this morning all came in on target and as expected, with the unemployment rate at 11.5% and the core CPI flash estimate at 0.7%. These figures were known-quantities already, so had almost no chance of causing any upswing on the European markets.

Unsurprisingly, considering the sour situation oil has caused in Europe, oil couldn’t rally today, hitting a low of $71.17 per barrel. That it didn’t dip below the $70 mark is the only bright spot for oil at the end of a dark week, in a dark month, in an increasingly bleak short term future.