CRUDE oil tumbled Friday, knocking down both energy-related shares and currencies after OPEC’s decision a day earlier not to cut output reinforced prospects of a worldwide oil supply glut.

    The U.S. dollar mostly strengthened, following the decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday, a move that slammed commodity currencies like the Norwegian crown, which fell to five-year lows against the greenback and the euro.

    The ruble weakened to more than 50 to the U.S. dollar in late trade, setting a new all-time low. The ruble has lost a third of its value this year as Western sanctions imposed due to the Ukraine crisis and falling oil weigh on the Russian economy.

    Eurozone government bond yields held near record lows as declining energy prices cut into consumer price growth across the bloc and raised the chances of more stimulus from the European Central Bank (ECB) on increased deflation fears.

    A rout in U.S. and European energy shares weighed on equity markets. But other sectors edged higher, lifting Wall Street’s Dow industrials and the NASDAQ, while several leading indexes in Europe pared losses in late trade to close slightly higher.

    U.S. crude, or West Texas Intermediate, fell more than 10 percent and Brent crude fell another 3.3 percent after a 6.7 percent slide Thursday. The sell-off since OPEC’s decision amounts to about US$67 billion in lost market value, Reuters estimates.

    The slide could deepen when traders and investors return after Thursday’s U.S. holiday and Friday’s shortened session.

    “There’s a notion that Friday’s selling was overdone, but not everyone is fully back to work yet after Thanksgiving,” said John Kilduff, partner at energy hedge fund Again Capital in New York. “WTI could certainly be down a couple of dollars more next week, and test newer lows from there.”

    Brent fell US$2.43 to settle at US$70.15 a barrel, lows last seen in May 2010, while U.S. crude settled down US$7.54 to US$66.15 a barrel.

    The European oil and gas sector fell 3.5 percent, while the S&P Energy index fell 6.3 percent. The energy index in Europe has lost US$240 billion in market value since late June, more than the market cap of Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Europe’s biggest oil major, Thomson Reuters data shows.

    The drop in oil sparked a sharp decline in inflation expectations as measured by “breakevens,” with 10-year TIPs at their lowest since October 2011 at about 1.8 percent.

    (SD-Agencies)