Oil price dips below $50 as stock market drops

The price of oil briefly dipped below $50 a barrel Monday, bringing the stock market down with it.

Crude oil futures in the Brent benchmark hit $49.95 late Monday morning, having fallen about 6 percent from the last trading day, Reuters reported. It quickly bounced back up.

It was the first time crude slipped below $50 since April 2009.

It came after a long downward trend in the price of oil, which was over $100 as recent as the summer, but has fallen precipitously due to increasing supply globally and reduced demand from major economies.

The oil price drops caused a major selloff of energy stocks, which rippled through the stock market and gave a big hit to trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped as much as 211 points, or 1.2 percent, and the S&P 500 index saw a similar 1.2 percent decline.

The energy sector of the S&P 500 saw the largest decline of any of its sectors, dropped 3.7 percent Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. were some of the biggest losers in the index, which Chevron’s stock dropped 3.5 percent and Exxon’s down 2.3 percent.

The big selloff is a result of traders knowing that they want to get rid of oil stocks, but not knowing where they want to invest next, Reuters said.