Crude oil slid to a four-year low after OPEC refrained from cutting production to ease a supply glut, stoking declines in energy stocks worldwide. Government bonds rose, while Russia’s ruble weakened to a record low.

West Texas Intermediate oil tumbled 6.3 percent to $69.05 a barrel in electronic trading, as Brent crude fell to its lowest level since 2010. Canadian energy companies sank the most since 2011, dragging the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index down 0.8 percent by 4:30 p.m. in Toronto. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed on record-low German unemployment. Ten-year French bond yields dropped below 1 percent as the ruble slid 2.6 percent. The Ibovespa (IBOV) fell after Brazil named a new finance minister.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained its collective production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day at a meeting in Vienna, resisting calls from Venezuela that a supply cut was needed to stem the rout that has sent oil prices into a bear market this year. Global energy stocks are down 25 percent in 2014, while fixed-income assets have rallied as the drop in crude damps inflation. German price growth climbed the least since 2010, data today showed, and most U.S. markets were closed for Thanksgiving.

“OPEC has chosen to abdicate its role as a swing producer, leaving it to the market to decide what the oil price should be,” Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets at BNP Paribas SA, said by phone from London. “It remains to be seen if a prolonged period of low prices is in OPEC’s interests.”

Cut Considered

Brent for January settlement slid 6.7 percent to $72.58 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, extending this year’s slide to 34 percent. WTI for January delivery dropped to the lowest level since May 2010. Gasoline futures tumbled 5.6 percent to the least since September 2010.

Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, confirmed that no action had been taken on output after the meeting of the 12 OPEC members. The group considered a production cut of 5 percent, according to Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. That’s about 1.5 million barrels a day based on the current ceiling.

Canadian energy shares slumped 5.1 percent, the most in one day since August 2011, led by losses of at least 14 percent in Penn West Petroleum Ltd., which slid to its lowest level since 1996, Blackpearl Resources Inc., and Lightstream Resources Ltd.

Energy Stocks

BG Group Plc fell 6 percent in London, as BP Plc slipped 2.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell Plc declined 4 percent. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index, which is down more than 18 percent from this year’s peak, fell 0.3 percent as indexes in Oman and Qatar dropped 1.6 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.

The ruble weakened to an all-time low of 48.6550 per dollar in Moscow, while Norway’s krone, the second-worst performer against the dollar this year among 16 major currencies, lost 1.4 percent to 6.9272 per dollar. Norway is the biggest oil producer in Western Europe.

The euro declined 0.3 percent to $1.2467 after the German inflation data. German consumer-price growth, calculated using a harmonized European Union method, dropped to 0.5 percent in November from 0.7 percent in October. It marked the slowest pace of inflation since February 2010.

Draghi Speech

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told Finland’s parliament today that current stimulus has yet to work through to the real economy, and also referred to the possibility of more to come. German unemployment was 6.6 percent in November, matching the revised number for the previous month that was the lowest level in records going back more than two decades.

Government bonds gained. Germany’s 10-year yield fell to a record low and the U.K.’s 30-year rates touched an all-time low of 2.673 percent. Italy sold five- and 10-year debt at record-low rates. Germany’s 10-year break-even rate, a gauge of the market outlook for inflation, narrowed to 1.01 percentage points, near the record-low close of 0.97 point set Oct. 15.

The Stoxx 600 added 0.4 percent, putting it on track for a monthly advance of 3.2 percent. Germany’s DAX Index (DAX) added 0.6 percent for an 11th day of gains, its longest rising streak since May 2013. The MSCI All-Country World Index fell 0.2 percent, snapping a five-day gain, as a sub-index of global energy shares slid 1.8 percent.

A technical fault halted all Euronext NV indexes, including France’s CAC 40 Index, Portugal’s PSI 20 Index and the Netherlands’ AEX Index, for more than three hours. All equity indexes resumed calculating at 12:25 p.m. Paris time.

Ibovespa Slips

Brazil’s Ibovespa dropped 0.7 percent amid concern the appointment of Joaquim Levy as finance minister and any policy changes he institutes won’t be enough to stoke growth in the Latin American economy. Levy helped implement fiscal changes under President Dilma Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as Brazil’s Treasury secretary.

The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) climbed 1 percent in a sixth straight day of gains, rising to the highest level since August 2011 after China further loosened monetary policy to support the world’s second-biggest economy.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest mobile-phone maker, rallied the most in four weeks in Seoul on its plan to buy back $2 billion of shares. South Korea’s won gained for a fifth consecutive trading day, strengthening 0.8 percent to 1,098.36 per dollar, the longest rising streak since July.

Bloomberg