There's been a stealth drop in oil prices

The markets have been preoccupied with a flurry of political headlines over the last few months such as Brexit and the US presidential election.

But in the background of all this, there's been a stealth slump in oil prices.

Both WTI crude and Brent crude prices are currently at levels that were last seen around April's meeting of major oil producers in Doha, Qatar.

WTI crude prices have fallen nearly 18% since their early June peak of about $51.23 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent prices have dropped by about 16% over the same time period. For what it's worth, a drop of over 20% is considered to be a bear market.

Around May, analysts attributed the surge in oil prices to various production outages, including attacks on infrastructure by the Niger Delta Avengers and the wildfires in Canada.

Anyway, here's where oil prices are as of 8:31 a.m. ET. WTI crude is trading around $42.09 per barrel:

Investing.com

And Brent crude is trading around $44.05 per barrel:

Investing.com