Goldman Sachs said in a note on Wednesday that it expects oil markets to remain highly volatile in the coming weeks.
Oil markets clawed back some ground on Wednesday after tumbling more than 6 percent the day previous day in heavy trading volumes.
“It will take a fundamental catalyst for prices to stabilize and eventually trade higher,” Goldman said in the note, adding that such a catalyst would include physical evidence that OPEC production is “sequentially” declining and further proof of demand resilience.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pushing allied producers including Russia to join in output cuts of 1 million to 1.4 million barrels per day.
Goldman said the renewed price collapse reflected “concerns over excess supply in 2019 ... (and) a broader cross-commodity and cross-asset sell-off as growth concerns continue to mount.”
The investment bank said a sharp collapse in demand or the absence of an OPEC production cut would be the two main risk to a recovery in prices from current levels,
“While both are unlikely, we are more concerned about the latter, with such a shift leading to sustainably lower prices,” Goldman said.