Chart of the Day 12/17/25: The ONE Commodity Sellers Can't Stop Selling

Gold? On fire. Silver? Even hotter. Base metals like copper? Looking good, too. But there is ONE commodity sellers can’t stop selling. Oil.

Just look at the MoneyShow Chart of the Day. It shows the price of West Texas Intermediate crude (CLF26) – the US benchmark. It’s down 23% year-to-date. In fact, at around $55 a barrel, it’s trading near its lowest level in five years.

Source: Yahoo Finance

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What’s fueling the relentless selling? Take your pick of forces.

Global oil inventories remain elevated, with commodity analysts at Macquarie saying markets are “cartoonishly oversupplied.” Hundreds of millions of barrels are floating around on tankers at sea as sellers are having trouble finding a home for them. OPEC+ nations have boosted production by roughly 2.9 million barrels per day in the last eight months.

Meanwhile, concerns are growing about Chinese energy demand. Plus, talk of a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal is leading some to speculate on an eventual increase in Russian supply. It’s all helping US consumers at the gasoline pump, because prices there are falling. But for commodity investors, it has been a different story.

What about energy stocks? The State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has managed to hang on. It’s up 8.1% on the year, underperforming the 17.2% rise in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) but at least trading in the black.

The same can’t be said about the State Street SPDR Oil and Gas Exploration and Production ETF (XOP), which is down slightly in 2025. Bargain hunting CAN pay off when a fundamental catalyst is at hand. But if oil prices keep sliding, those relentless COMMODITY market sellers might find their way into energy STOCKS, too.