Crude oil prices plunged again today, falling below $91 a barrel at one point this morning as traders and investors worried about lower oil demand from a weakened economy and the prospect that troubled financial firms would curtail oil trading or liquidate positions. The dip in prices follows a 5.4 percent drop yesterday that brought the cost of oil below $100 a barrel for first time since Feb. 15.Early this morning, oil prices fell to $90.83 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, although they crept back up as the morning advanced. It settled today at $91.15 a barrel. Crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $5.47, to $95.71 a barrel yesterday, continuing a two-month retreat. The prices of other commodities also fell but much more modestly.
The price drop is tied to the tumult on Wall Street. "The fear is that the sharp deterioration of the banking crisis in the U.S. will spread to the real economy and demand for oil," Carsten Fritsch, a Commerzbank AG analyst in Frankfurt, told Bloomberg News.