Drop in oil price causes market skid

Wall Street’s bleak January is only getting darker.

Stocks cratered Wednesday, falling to their lowest point since September, as the price of Brent crude oil continued to drag down US markets amid a broader global sell-off.

The Dow Jones fell more than 360 points — the fifth day of triple-digit losses this year — to 16,151.41.

A barrel of Brent crude oil also briefly fell below $30 a barrel, the first time in 12 years.

The blue-chip index has fallen more than 7 percent this year.

The S&P 500 also fell 2.5 percent to 1,890.28, the first time it landed below 1,900 since Sept. 29.

Last year’s high flying stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google — all suffered far more than the overall market on Wednesday.

The FANGs were down 6 percent on average as investors backed out of the widely held stocks in droves.

As a result, the tech-laden Nasdaq index fell 3.4 percent, a full percentage point more than the broader market.

The equity sell-off comes as the bright spots in the global economy grow dimmer.

The Chinese economy is sputtering with the promise of posting slower growth next week.

In addition, construction in the nation is contracting, the Federal Reserve is tightening the free flow of money, and more risky corporate borrowers are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

But the biggest driver of the sell-off has been, by far, the price of oil, analysts say.

“I don’t think it’s going to get any better until oil at least stabilizes,” Randy Frederick, Charles Schwab’s managing director of trading and derivatives, told The Post.

While both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have predicted that oil could fall to $20 a barrel, it was Standard Chartered that put a $10-a-barrel price target in its latest report.