Crude falls below $40 for first time in 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio

Friday’s decline capped another bad week for oil prices, though crude at one point rose above $50 a barrel from a five-year low of $33.87 on Dec. 19.

Crude has closed lower every day with dire economic news overshadowing armed conflict in the oil-rich Middle East, a dispute that has shut off or disrupted natural gas supplies to more than a dozen European nations, and diminished crude exports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 percent of global supply.

The unemployment report bolsters how the worst recession in decades has taken hold of the U.S. economy. At the same time, crude oil continues to flood the market with traders storing oil at sea in hopes that it can be sold later should prices rise.

AP