Oil prices have “dropped like a rock” over the past seven weeks but are finally approaching a bottom, Wells Fargo strategist Scott Wren told CNBC on Friday.
“It’s caught the falling knife,” the senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute said in a “Squawk on the Street” interview. However, “from our perspective oil, while it’s hard to say right now exactly where the bottom is going to be, we feel it’s pretty close to where we are right now.”
Oil prices fell Friday to their lowest levels in more than a year.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell $3.41, or 6.2 percent, to $51.22 in light trading after the Thanksgiving holiday. WTI briefly slid about 7 percent to its weakest prices since Oct. 12, 2017. International benchmark Brent crude was around $59.52 a barrel, down $3.08, or 4.9 percent
The sell-off in crude comes amid escalating concerns about an increase in global supply and a slowdown in economic growth. OPEC and non-OPEC members meeting in Vienna on Dec. 6 are expected to start curtailing output.
Wren also said the latest wave of energy market selling has added to fears in the broader market of a slowdown in economic growth.
Wren has previously said two things will determine the market action by the end of the year: If there is “any whiff” of anything positive on U.S.-China trade and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s decision on interest rates.
“We know growth is decent here in the U.S.,” he said. “But clearly the market is afraid and [oil is] adding to fears already that the global economy is going to be slowing down.”
–CNBC’s Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report
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