Oil Prices Continue to Slump on Economic Slowdown

As of 8:57 am EDT, the price of crude had fallen by 1.2 percent to reach $74.73 a barrel and the price of heating oil had dropped by 1.0 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report

Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: Down $0.03
Morning projection (for Friday’s average price per gallon): Down $0.03

China and the US, the world’s two largest energy consumers, have shown signs that their burgeoning economic recovery is slowing down, weakening the demand for oil in the two countries. China’s manufacturing sector, though still growing, expanded more slowly in June. In the US, Wednesday’s poor payroll numbers combined with Thursday’s report of a rise in unemployment claims to indicate that any economic growth is still proceeding at a slow pace, and the surprising increase in gasoline inventories that the EIA reported on Wednesday confirmed that the sluggish recovery in the US is keeping demand for fuel down.

HEAT USA price experts report that the grim economic news around the globe will continue to weigh on oil prices, but prices could reverse course on the next positive economic indicator.