Oil prices are slumping as the world's largest economy said the economy slowed in the third quarter in what figures to be the clearest sign yet that the U.S. is now in a recession, the Associated Press reported.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell US$1.91 to US$65.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Oil prices have fallen 55 percent since peaking at US$147 a barrel in mid-July.
In London, December Brent crude fell US$1.96 to US$65.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
The broadest barometer of the nation's economic health, the gross domestic product, shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter.
Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp, said: "We were smacked with the short-term reality that demand is just not going to be there."