Russia, being a country rich in natural resources, is feeling the pain of the declining price of crude oil. A strong US dollar has driven the price of Brent crude oil below $100 a barrel with no support until $96.02 a barrel.
With oil in bearish formation, that spells trouble for Russian stocks, many of which are tied to the performance of the energy markets. The RTSI index, which is already down -12.8% year-to-date, is down -1.16% this morning. Comparatively, the Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) was down -4.4% last week and is down -5% over the last month.
