Jobs data send oil prices tumbling below $70

[Watchman]

[COLOR="_______"]Jobs data send oil prices tumbling below $70[/COLOR]

By MARK WILLIAMS (AP) – 1 day ago

Oil prices tumbled Friday as unemployment hit a 26-year high, sowing more doubts about the strength of the economic recovery and crude demand.

Benchmark crude for November delivery fell 87 cents a barrel to settle at $69.95 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fell as low as $68.32 earlier in the day.

Heating oil and gasoline prices also fell.

Natural gas, which fell 8 percent Thursday after the government reported consumption has dropped so low that the U.S. is now storing more than at any other time on record, added 25.2 cents to settle at $4.718 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut a worse-than-expected 263,000 jobs.

All told, 15.1 million Americans are now out of work, the Labor Department said. And more than 7.2 million jobs have been eliminated since the recession began in December 2007.

Crude has about doubled in price since February, pulled higher in part by the hope that the economy is coming back from the worst recession since World War II, a six-month rally on Wall Street and a battered dollar.

But the jobs figure and recent reports on manufacturing show the economy is still weak. The Commerce Department on Friday said that new orders to U.S. factories fell in August by the largest amount in five months. The 0.8 percent drop was much worse than the 0.7 percent that economists expected.

At the same time, some of the stimulus from such government programs as the Cash for Clunkers auto rebate and the $8,000 credit for new home buyers is starting to wind down.

"We're going to start to see how solid the economy is," said PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn, who believes oil prices could fall below $60 before the end of the year.

Prices at the pump edged down 0.4 cents overnight to $2.465, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices are now 13.7 cents below levels of a month ago and $1.133 lower than year-ago levels.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 3.06 cents to settle at $1.7968 a gallon. Gasoline for November delivery dropped 1.7 cents to settle at $1.7409 a gallon.

In London, Brent crude fell $1.12 to settle at $68.07 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Alex Kennedy in Singapore and Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[Wobble]

no diff to us..as the cartels will take another 3months to reduce prices...in tune with gahmen electricity adjustment..

 

[Alamaking]

BUT WHY WE PAYING HIGHER ELECTRICITY NEXT MONTH!!!!!!!

 

[Watchman]

Because other avenues of making money is so much more difficult .