Oil Drops Back Below $100
Reuters

LONDON -- Oil slipped below $100 a barrel on Thursday for the first time in two weeks, extending a hefty sell-off in the previous session on growing concerns an economic slowdown in top consumer the United States would undermine global energy demand.
U.S. crude was down $2.00 to $100.54 barrel by 1117 GMT, up from an earlier low of $99.59, the first time since March 5 that it has fallen below $100.

It dropped almost $5 on Wednesday and is about $12 off the record $111.80 hit on Monday.

London Brent crude fell $1.71 to $99.47 by 1059 GMT.

"We continue to see profit-taking among commodities. There are also macro-economic concerns about the economy and the dollar has been doing better," said Mike Wittner, global head of oil market research in London for Societe Generale.

Gold dropped more than 4 percent to a one-month low Thursday, while platinum slid more than 5 percent to $1,820 an ounce, the lowest since early February as funds cashed in.

Oil and other commodities had struck a series of record highs since the beginning of the year as investors fled stocks markets and took refuge in dollar-denominated assets. U.S. oil prices averaging around $97 a barrel since the beginning of this year, up from $72.30 in 2007.

But investors nervous about the economy are cashing in on recent record prices in commodities and energy.

"We believe that the combination of low economic growth in the United States and high oil price inflation will have its strongest impact on demand in the first half of the year," Goldman Sachs said in a note, pointing to the 3.2 percent fall in U.S. oil demand over the past 4 weeks from last year according to stocks data released on Wednesday.

The data showed lower fuel stocks than forecast, but the figures also revealed a fall in demand.

U.S. demand for gasoline over the past four weeks was 0.1 percent below last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration figures showed.

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