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Oil falls below $60 to 20-month lows as demand slows
 Oil fell below $60 a barrel for the first time in 20 months on Friday, extending its overnight drop of 7 percent, as spreading economic gloom further dampened the outlook for energy demand.$60 a barrel=$1.50 for product, add .50 for transportation and refining for $2.00 a gallon gas. It's $2.06 at my neighborhood BP and Shell. Hess and Texaco are two cents higher. I'm still not doing any extra driving, but it'll be comforting to see the price go under $2.00 a gallon. The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it now expects 2009 global economic growth of 2.2 percent, down 0.8 percentage points from its October forecast. It also cut its 2009 baseline oil price projection to $68 a barrel from $100. U.S. light crude for December delivery fell 44 cents to $60.33 a barrel by 8:50 p.m. EST, having earlier fallen to $59.97, its lowest since March 22, 2007. London Brent Crude was down 73 cents to $56.70. Oil prices have tumbled more than 10 percent this week as a series of dismal economic data from the United States sharpened investors' worries of a protracted global recession and growing U.S. fuel stockpiles underscored thinning energy demand. Britain and Europe slashed interest rates on Thursday amid recession fears deepened by some of the worst U.S. retail sales in decades and an IMF forecast for an economic contraction not seen since World War Two. Moves by top automaker Toyota to halve its profit forecast and expectations the U.S. could report another 200,000 job losses on Friday also added to signs of distress. Analysts said Asian stock markets' performance and dollar movements would be key to oil prices. Fears of a global recession dragged down Asian stocks on Friday, with the Japan's Nikkei average tumbling 6 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index shedding 4 percent in early trading. Traders will also be looking toward U.S. economic indicators due out later on Friday, including government reports on October unemployment data and September wholesale inventories, to gauge how the world's largest economy is faring. In just about three months, oil prices lost nearly $90 from record highs above $147 a barrel, as the growing global economic crisis cuts energy demand in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, and other industrialized nations. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-07 |
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