Oil rebound fizzles andsends global shares lower

Global stock markets fell yesterday as oil prices slumped back towards 11-year lows, sapping investors’ appetite for risky assets and hurting the shares of mining and energy companies.

Stock markets rallied the previous day as oil prices rebounded on prospects for lower temperatures on both sides of the Atlantic. But yesterday benchmark Brent crude slid back below $37 a barrel, with investors worried about slowing demand and high supplies.

The fall in oil prices has been a major driver of financial markets this year, hammering energy companies, lowering inflation expectations and reinforcing bets on loose monetary policy in Europe and a slow tightening in the United States.

Wall Street was lower, led by declines in energy shares; Apple Inc, the most valuable public US company, exerted the biggest drag on the S&P, falling 0.8 percent en route to what will be its first down year since 2008.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.23 per cent to 17,680.98, the S&P 500 lost 0.31 per cent to 2,071.82 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4 per cent, to 5,087.54.

The MSCI All World Index dipped 0.4 per cent.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.4 per cent, while the eurozone’s...