NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures edged lower early Friday amid grim economic news from around the world and reports that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold an emergency meeting this month.
Crude oil for December delivery fell 39 cents to $57.86 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
On Thursday, crude rose $2.08, or 3.7%, to close at $58.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Nov. 29, according to media reports Thursday. The cartel had been hinting that it would hold a meeting ahead of the scheduled meeting on Dec. 17 in Algeria.
"This morning, oil prices were a little lower as concerns over weakening energy demand amid slowing global economies continued to weigh on sentiment," said analysts at Sucden Research in a note.
Bleak economic news streamed in from around the world, heightening oil traders' worries that a global recession will lead to a sharp slowdown in energy demand.
In the United States, the Commerce Departments estimated Friday that retail sales plunged a record 2.8% in October as sales of autos and gasoline plummeted.
Across the Atlantic, the 15-nation euro zone plunged into its first recession since the debut of the single currency nearly a decade ago, data showed Friday. See full story.
The region's third-quarter gross domestic product shrank 0.2% compared to the previous quarter, according to the statistical agency Eurostat. The second quarter also saw a 0.2% decline. Recession is commonly defined as two or more consecutive quarters of falling GDP.
Also on the Globex, December reformulated gasoline fell 4 cents to $1.27 a gallon and December heating oil was flat at $1.87 a gallon.
December natural gas futures gained 1 cent to $6.33 per million British thermal units.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will delay its release of the weekly natural-gas supply data by a day, to Friday at 10:30 a.m. EST. Analysts at IHS Global Insight expect gas in storage to have risen by 40 billion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 7.
Elsewhere on the commodity markets, gold futures soared 6%, boosted by safe-haven demand.
