Oil falls below $60 as IEA report reaffirms demand concerns

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August oil futures fell 52 cents, or 0.9%, to end at $59.89 a barrel, the lowest settlement for a front-month contract since May 18. It dropped as low as $58.72 earlier.

Supply glut hits energy stocks

Bearish petroleum supply data put the brakes on the energy sector, as shares of oil and natural gas producers retreat with falling crude prices. MarketWatch's Steve Gelsi reports.

Crude prices were lower "after a downbeat IEA report for 2009 and on continued market concerns over the state of the global economy," said Nimit Khamar, analyst at Sucden Financial Research, in a note.

Oil futures have tumbled 10.3% this week, their biggest weekly loss since the five sessions ended Jan. 9.

"There was nothing fundamental supporting prices with consumption down from a weakened economy and inventories well above normal," said James Williams, an economist at energy research firm WTRG Economics.

The sharp weekly loss came after the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. futures market regulator, said earlier this week that it was considering applying limits on speculation in energy futures. See full story.

Most recent 250, keyword energy, chrono sort (and minus the current topic):

Hard to imagine anybody being real excited about that right now

True, and which is exactly what is wrong with our energy policy. This is exactly the time when the government should be encouraging drilling, even extending extra credit to companies to finance the development of oilfields.

If we had a rational government instead of a criminally insane fascist regime, we could be sitting pretty in five years instead of sucking sh*t along with the turd world and eurabia.

I know you young guys/gals don't want to hear it, but I remember when gas was .25 a gallon. Bread was .10 a loaf, meat was far less than it is now a pound and the dollar was king of the world.

I remember when we manufactured everything here, in the US and we traded some also, but mostly we made stuff here!

Until we do that again, and until we have leaders who realize that taxes kill off industry and that agreements like nafta send our business overseas, we will never reach the pinnacle we reached back in the day.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures fell below $60 a barrel Friday, marking their biggest weekly loss in six months as an International Energy Agency report reaffirmed concerns about weak demand.

Supply glut hits energy stocks