Crude oil futures fell sharply on Monday, 27 October 2014 at Nymex after Goldman Sachs slashed its forecast for prices, predicting West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices will spend the better part of 2015 at $75 a barrel. A key meeting of the Federal Reserve, as it is set to announce the end of its 2008-era bond-buying stimulus program this week
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December slid 35 cents, or 0.4%, to $80.66 a barrel after briefly dipping below $80.
Goldman analysts brought forward their medium-term bearish oil outlook, as they predicted WTI crude will average $75 a barrel for the first quarter of 2015 and the second half of 2015. That's down nearly 17% from $90 a barrel, previously. They cut their Brent forecast by 15%, to $85 a barrel, from $100 a barrel, previously. The 2016 and long-term forecasts for those oil prices are $80 a barrel WTI and $90 a barrel for Brent.
The much-anticipated stress test results on European Union financial institutions were released over the weekend. While there were some EU banks that failed the tests, overall the results were not deemed threatening to the EU financial system.
There was another downbeat economic report coming out of the EU on Monday, as Germany's Ifo business confidence index came in at 103.2 in October, versus 104.7 in September. The Ifo reading this month was at a two-year low.
For the rest of this week, financial markets will be focused on U.S. economic data and the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on its quantitative easing policy.
Among other energy products, gasoline for November delivery fell two cents to $2.16 a gallon. November heating oil fell one cent to $2.47.