Oil also plunges

Well, at least gas prices aren’t going up. Crude oil futures fell $10.52 to close at $96.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. As the economic situation deteriorates, the demand for commodities, including oil, is expected to slow. From the NYT:

The darkening economic outlook could further push down oil prices in the coming months if demand for oil in developed countries also keeps falling, according to Ben Dell, an analyst at Bernstein Research. He expects oil consumption could fall by 1.3 million barrels a day, or 2.6 percent, in the fourth quarter this year. That is much more than the 470,000 barrels a day drop forecast from the International Energy Agency. “This dynamic is similar to that of the 1980s and suggests that investors should be increasingly concerned with the slowdown in Europe, Japan and the U.S.,” he wrote in a note to clients.

L.A.-area gas prices dropped another nickel a gallon, according to the government's weekly survey. The average price of unleaded regular is $3.632.