Best 3 Websites To Find Crude Oil Breaking News

Best 3 Websites To Find Crude Oil Breaking News

Crude oil is a highly liquid market with many buyers and sellers exchanging their positions by the second. Out of all the commodities actively traded in the United States, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is the most liquid. High liquidity means constant price changes, because, in a liquid market, there are buyers and sellers willing to make deals at almost any price. There are many websites that report crude oil news, but only a few report breaking news and current prices. The following are three websites where you can go to find current information on crude oil news and prices.

MarketWatch

MarketWatch provides "business news, personal finance information, real-time commentary, investment tools and data." Due to this diversity, it might not necessarily stand out as a great source for breaking oil news, but MarketWatch is always one of the first to break news. It provides current oil price information and more in-depth stories detailing oil's price path.

MarketWatch breaks news by putting out headlines as soon as news hits. These headlines can be found at the top center of its Web page under the headline "Latest News." Important news is written in boldface, highlighted or brought to the reader's attention with the introduction: BREAKING NEWS. The headlines are meant to get the news out as soon as possible, but MarketWatch also provides more depth when necessary, putting out stories, sometimes only a paragraph or two, to detail the nuances of the news released as a headline.

MarketWatch publishes multiple oil feature articles and updates during the day, including pre-market and closing bell commentary. The company also has an active link, on its landing page, showing the price of WTI. Within most articles, MarketWatch also includes an active link to the price of oil, so when you read an article the price quote included is current.

MarketWatch offers a more in-depth analysis of the economic news driving oil prices because the website also reports on these developments. This makes it easier to get more background information into oil's price drivers, which is important for a commodity that is highly liquid and economically sensitive.

Reuters Commodities Page

Reuters has a commodity-specific portion of its website that releases breaking oil news, background stories and current prices. Reuters has more recent in-depth stories about the sector as a whole and is good at releasing any imperative news as it is made public. A strength of Reuters over MarketWatch is there is more in-depth current analysis of the sector including price-driving sector updates. Reuters also publishes frequent pieces detailing oil's price movements and factors behind those movements.

CNBC

CNBC has an online Web page dedicated to oil news. During U.S. market hours, the Web page publishes frequent oil-specific pieces when relevant. This works out to be about every hour when you look at its main page. CNBC frequently updates its articles when there is a price movement in oil, but it does not provide a live feed to oil prices like MarketWatch. CNBC makes up for this by providing a good breadth of oil sector stories including all major price movers and price-driving developments, but if you want frequent quotes for oil without having to look at a chart, MarketWatch or Reuters is a better choice.

Making the Right Choice for Contracts

There are two major oil contracts in which oil market participants are most interested. In North America, the benchmark for oil futures is WTI crude oil futures. In Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the benchmark is North Sea Brent crude. All of the websites listed provide pricing and economic information on both crude benchmarks, but it is important to pay attention to the breaking news and price differences between the two. While the two contracts move somewhat in unison, WTI is more sensitive to American economic developments, and Brent crude is more sensitive to overseas developments.