Brent May crude falls $2.72, or 2.64%, to $100.39

NEW YORK: Goldman Sachs has recommmended that clients should close their bets on higher Brent crude oil prices, warning that the global benchmark may keep sliding.
Goldman, long considered one of the most influential banks in commodity markets, said the position it had recommended in the Brent crude S&P GSCI index back in August would have lost more than 15 percent.
Brent May crude fell $2.72, or 2.64 percent, to settle and go off the board at $100.39 a barrel, having traded from $100.02 to $103.09.
Brent crude for June delivery fell $2.41 to settle at $100.63 a barrel.
“In the tug-of-war between tight global fundamentals and the negative sentiment created by weak European product markets and fears of further Chinese slowdown, the latter currently prevail,” Goldman analysts Jeffrey Currie and Stefan Wieler said in a research note.
The bank said it still expected higher prices later this year as it believes oil markets remain relatively tight, but it was not yet ready to call a bottom in a market that has fallen by about $19 a barrel, or 16 percent, since February.
“We will not get clarity on whether this weakness in European demand is indeed just seasonal or whether it reflects something more lasting for another two months,” the research note said.
In February, prices hit a high of $119.07 for the year, but have since fallen because of concerns about the economic recovery, ample supplies and the pace of growth in China.