Oil prices sink as sentiment turns, 'was due for a correction'

• Crude oil prices sank for a second straight session amid today's broad selloff of stocks, bonds and commodities, with U.S. March WTI -1.5% to settle at $64.50/bbl and March Brent -0.6% at $69.02.
• Just last week crude oil hit three-year highs amid strong demand, geopolitical risks, a weaker U.S. dollar and OPEC-led supply curbs; now some analysts say investors are waking up to the effects of rising U.S. crude production.
• “U.S. oil production is rising and forecasts have moved up,” says Ehsan Ul-Haq of Resource Economist Ltd. “Oversupply is becoming the problem... with more and more U.S. crude we are going to be drowning in oil.”
• But investor enthusiasm for oil also has led to lopsided bets that may have made the market vulnerable to sharp selloffs, as hedge funds, pensions and other investors have amassed their largest-ever net bullish positions in U.S. crude futures.
• “It’s gone up too far, too fast and was due for a correction,” says Michael Hiley, head of over-the-counter energy trading at LPS Futures LLC. “It’s a similar feeling to the stock market - both are running hard and both... are correcting.”
• ETFs: USO, XLE, OIL, UWT, UCO, VDE, XOP, DWT, ERX, OIH, SCO, BNO, DBO, XES, ERY, DIG, BGR, GUSH, DTO, FENY, USL, IYE, DUG, DRIP, IEO, FIF, IEZ, DNO, NDP, PXE, OLO, RYE, PXJ, SZO, CRAK, FXN, OLEM, WTIU, DDG, OILK, NANR, OILX, WTID, USOI, USOU, USOD, FTXN, JHME, UBRT, ERYY, DBRT, ERGF, USAI