Commodities

Looking beyond gold’s weak points

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil has dropped to below $46 in early trading, a fresh six-year low, as the commodity's collapse showed no sign of slowing down.

The precipitous decline in the oil price has continued this morning, with a further slump in Brent crude seeing it trade below $50 for the first time in more than five years.

No need to panic over oil price in freefall

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi, the most significant voice in the OPEC cartel, has said the group will not cut production even if the price of oil falls to $20 a barrel.

Guinness Asset Management chief executive Tim Guinness believes the price of Brent crude oil will fall to as low as $40 a barrel - and then rebound sharply.

Much of the oil in the ground may never be burned, if the world's temperature continues to rise. What effect will this have on traditional oil and gas players, and where else can investors look?

Pick up almost any business publication or newspaper and you will read someone's deep thoughts about the oil price, plus a multitude of predictions about where it will go next.

With developed economies flirting with deflation, central banks will likely regard the oil price slump as troublesome. M&G's Jim Leaviss explains how short-term deflation could turn to long-term growth boost.

A cocoa price crisis, Draghi quitting the ECB, and a devaluation in the yuan could all be on the cards for 2015, Saxo Bank chief economist Steen Jakobsen (pictured) has predicted in his annual ‘Outrageous Predictions'.