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And today's edition of cnn 10 starts with a report about oil, aka "black gold", "Texas tea", at least that's what it's been called in the past. Currently demand for it and the price of it has fallen to the basement. Lower oil prices can translate to lower gasoline prices and those are being seen around the United States and beyond. But crude oil is known as the mother of all commodities because it's used in so many other products, from plastic, to petroleum, to paint and it's necessary for the machines that help make those products.
Rising crude oil prices mean that global demand is increasing and that can indicate the global economy is growing. But the price of oil which is sold by the barrel has fallen dramatically because of the coronavirus pandemic. And it made headlines in history this week because at one point, U.S. stock market oil prices were negative. On Monday afternoon, oil was at minus $37.63 per barrel. What this meant is that there was so much supply in the oil market that the world was running out of places to store it and oil producers were essentially paying people to take their oil barrels. It's the first time that's happened since oil futures started trading in the U.S. stock market in 1983.
Crude prices did turn positive again yesterday though they were still incredibly low. No one knows how long they'll stay so low. And that's a concern especially for American oil companies because they can't make money. Industry analysts say several hundred oil companies will file for bankruptcy by the end of next year if prices don't climb back up. Countries outside the U.S. that export huge amounts of crude oil have agreed to reduce their production of it to try to stabilize prices but that won't happen until next month.
