Live updates: Dow Jones plunges, Crude oil prices turn negative

US benchmark index Dow Jones lost around 600 points on Monday. The other major indices on Wall Street also lost considerably.

Crude oil futures turning negative

US Crude oil future prices fell below $0 and reached its all-time low of $-1.43 on Monday. The New York Mercantile Exchange opened commodities trading in Crude oil in 1983, and this is the first time since its inception that oil futures have turned negative.

Crude oil extraction takes place from deep within the earth’s surface. This oil is either consumed or stored in reservoirs. Like every other commodity, oil follows the rule of supply and demand.

Significance of negative price of Crude oil

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought manufacturing industries to a standstill. There is negligible demand for crude oil. And most of the reservoirs are filled with crude. The bottom line is there are not enough storage facilities right now to store all the extracted crude.

Thus when storage runs out, companies might pay customers to take the crude. That is what is implied by the price of oil turning negative.

Energy companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil were among the hardest hit companies in the US Financial markets.

Bitcoin falls with the fall of Crude, BTCUSD below the $7k mark

One of the original ideas behind the creation of Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto was that Bitcoin would successfully safeguard against such tumultuous times. However, with the crude prices turning negative and causing havoc throughout financial markets, Bitcoin seems to be falling with it.

BTCUSD Chart Published on TradingView.com

BTC was going strong and slowly turning bullish in the past two weeks. Bitcoin’s abrupt fall made investors lose millions of dollars. This is yet another proof that Bitcoin is not a ‘safe haven’ and should not be treated as one.