Futures are poised for biggest monthly loss since early 1980s
By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell Friday for a second session, poised for the biggest monthly loss since futures started trading in New York in 1983, on continued concerns that a slowdown in global economic growth will reduce oil demand.
Crude for December fell $2.08, or 3.2%, to $63.88 a barrel in early electronic trading. Crude's front-month contract has lost 37% so far this month, the biggest monthly percentage decline. Crude is now 57% lower than its record high of $147.27 hit in July.
Crude were "still under pressure from renewed demand concerns, following negative GDP growth figures in the U.S.," wrote Nimit Khamar, Sucden Research.
The U.S., the world's largest oil consumer, said Thursday that its third-quarter gross domestic product contracted at a 0.3% annualized rate, the biggest decline since the end of the last recession in late 2001. The U.S. accounts for about a quarter of the world's oil demand.
Also in energy trading, November reformulated gasoline fell 2.8% to $1.4266 per gallon, while November heating oil shed 2.2% to $1.94 per gallon.
The average U.S. retail price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $2.504 Friday, down from $2.547 Thursday and well below the year-ago average of $2.913, according to data from AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
December natural gas fell 0.9% to $6.375 per million British thermal units.
