Declining Oil prices

COLUMBUS, Ohio: There has been speculation that that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon. Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday 5th Dec 2008, as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The worst jobs data in 34 years on Friday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent. On Friday, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled at $40.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down by nearly $3 per barrel. Prices fell as low at $40.50, levels last seen in December 2004. On July 11 a barrel of oil hit a record $147.27. Prices at the pump fell 1.6 cents overnight to $1.773 nationally. (In March 1999 when prices were at 97 cents a gallon) If the trend continues it is possible for gas prices to get close to a $1, oil prices probably would need to fall another $10 a barrel. Already, in Neelyville, Mo., a village of about 500 people near the Arkansas state line motorists can fill up for $1.29. (Source gasbuddy.com)

Prices in New York City are well above the national averages, but still well off their highs of nearly $5 this summer.

The jobs number suggests that demand for gasoline, which has been running well below year-ago levels even with the cheaper prices in the last several weeks, will fall even more in early 2009 as work-related driving plummets. With wages stagnant, home prices plummeting and foreclosure rated soaring, dollar-a-gallon gas indicates how bad the economy has become. Gas prices neared a dollar last time on Dec. 18, 2001, three months after the terrorist attacks and the country in its last recession, when prices hit $1.08 a gallon. VIA

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