SALON

Tuesday, Dec 4, 2012 5:30 AM UTC

Oil falls below $89 on US manufacturing worries

By

Topics: From the Wires,

BANGKOK (AP) — Worries about the U.S. economy following the release of a disappointing manufacturing report sent oil prices lower Tuesday.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 27 cents to $88.82 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract finished up 18 cents at $89.09 a barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

Manufacturing the U.S. shrank in November to its weakest level since July 2009, a trade group said Monday, because companies are worried about the “fiscal cliff” — sharp tax increases and spending cuts that take effect in 2013 unless U.S. political leaders strike a budget deal before then.

Flaring tensions in the Middle East, including Egypt’s widening political crisis and reports that Syria may be readying its chemical and biological weapons against rebels, kept prices from falling more.

There was no immediate threat to oil supplies, but there are persistent worries that fighting could eventually spread to a neighboring oil producer.

“Markets have to factor in the risk. They can’t ignore at least the possibility of that sort of thing happening,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.

Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, fell 34 cents to $110.58 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Other energy futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

— Heating oil fell 0.9 cent to $3.047 a gallon

— Natural gas was unchanged at $3.591 per 1,000 cubic feet

— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.9 cent to $2.717 a gallon.

More By Pamela Sampson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations