Oil prices fell sharply this evening as more US economic data provided a fresh blow to shaky investor confidence and extended US oil's losses to 13% so far in August.
Gold hit a fresh record as investors sought safe havens and fled shares and commodities, which have been battered this month by concerns about the US deficit, the euro zone debt crisis and a darkening economic outlook.
Brent crude fell $2.99 to $107.61 a barrel, down from near $117 a barrel at the end of July. Losses were heavier in US crude, down $4.13 to $83.45 a barrel, in the biggest one-day drop since August 8. In London, the price of gold has hit a new record high of just under $1,826 an ounce.
Analysts have revised down forecasts for fuel consumption in recent weeks as concerns about the economy increase, and Morgan Stanley cut its forecast for global GDP growth for 2011 and 2012.
The market was also closely watching developments in Syria. US President Barack Obama banned US imports of Syrian oil as part of sanctions against the country, and joined the EU in calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down after a five-month crackdown on protesters.
Syria supplies a small amount of oil to the United States, shipping about 10,000 barrels per day of refined products to the world's top consumer in the first five months of 2011, out of total imports of nearly nine million bpd.
