BLBG: Crude Oil Drops Below $80 as Equities Slump on Credit Freeze
By Mark Shenk
Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell below $80 for the first time in a year and copper headed for its biggest weekly drop in more than 20 years on concern that the deepening financial crisis will push the global economy into a recession.
Oil in New York is approaching its biggest weekly decline since 2003 amid plunging share prices in Asia and Europe. The S&P 500 fell 5 percent to the lowest level since the start of the Iraq War in 2003. All commodities with the exception of gold are down on signs that demand for raw materials will drop as the global economy falters.
``No matter where you look, there is bleeding everywhere,'' said Chip Hodge, a managing director at MFC Global Investment Management in Boston, who oversees a $4.5 billion energy-company bond portfolio. ``I don't know where the bottom is. It's clear that we are headed for a painful couple of years.''
Crude oil for November delivery fell $5.83, or 6.7 percent, to $80.76 a barrel at 10:59 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $78.61, the lowest since Oct. 9, 2007. Prices have dropped 45 percent from the record $147.27 a barrel reached on July 11.
Gasoline for November delivery declined 15.07 cents, or 7.4 percent, to $1.8766 a gallon in New York. Heating oil dropped 14.88 cents, or 6.2 percent, to $2.2698 a gallon.
More than $4 trillion has been erased from global equities this week even as central banks across the world were forced to cut interest rates on concern banks will run out of money.
`Moving on Emotion'
``This is a market that is moving on emotion, not the supply and demand picture,'' said Sarah Emerson, managing director of Energy Security Analysis Inc., a consulting firm in Wakefield, Massachusetts. ``We are looking for a landing place, and I have no idea where it is.''
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities tumbled to the lowest in more than a year today. The CRB fell as much as 13.25 to 297.28, the weakest since Jan. 30, 2007. The index has slumped 37 percent from a record on July 3.
Copper futures for December delivery fell 22.65 cents, or 9.4 percent, to $2.1795 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 28 nations, cut its forecast for global oil demand next year by 0.5 percent as the worst financial crisis since the 1930s threatens a global recession.
The IEA lowered its 2009 projection by 440,000 barrels a day to 87.2 million barrels a day, the Paris-based agency said today in its monthly report, citing a weaker economic outlook from the International Monetary Fund. Non-OPEC supply growth this year has been ``largely wiped out'' after hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and pipeline disruptions in Azerbaijan.
Lower Demand
U.S. fuel demand averaged about 18.7 million barrels a day during the past four weeks, the lowest since June 1999, according to an Energy Department report on Oct. 8. The figure is down 8.6 percent from the year-earlier period.
The MSCI World Index fell for a seventh day, losing 6.1 percent, and Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped 9.6 percent, the second-biggest drop on record. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 declined 6.5 percent.
``Oil is not a safe haven, because you have to use it,'' said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. ``Gold and putting money in your mattress look like the safest places to put your money.''
Oil companies followed energy futures lower. Exxon Mobil Corp. dropped 10 percent to $61.13 after touching $58.30, the lowest since June 26, 2006. Chevron Corp. fell 8 percent to $58.86.
Brent crude oil for November settlement declined $6.31, or 7.6 percent, to $76.35 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. Futures touched $75 a barrel, the lowest since Sept. 11, 2007.
Prices may extend their decline next week, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Thirteen of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, or 43 percent, said prices will decrease through Oct. 17.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.