Oil giveaway spells doom, brings out market bears

"What we're seeing here is this fast-forward recession," said Patrick Perret-Green, head of research at AdMacro, a boutique research and investment advisory in London.(Pic shows oil storage at Cushing, Oklahoma. - Reuters)

SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE/NEW YORK: The crash in U.S. crude prices has turned a reliable commodity less than worthless and given fresh urgency to bearish voices, who say it sounds alarm bells for global growth and are bracing for a catastrophic collapse in asset prices.

Markets are already unnerved at the specter of traders paying to get rid of May futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude , as storage tanks at the delivery point in Oklahoma quickly fill with unused fuel.