Oil drops following declines in stock market
Oil falls below $101 as US stock markets drop; drivers pay $3.69 for gas ahead of weekend
The price of oil dropped below $101 per barrel Friday after disappointing earnings in the U.S. prompted declines in the stock market.
Benchmark U.S. crude for June delivery shed $1.34 to close at $100.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil finished the week with a decline of $3.70 a barrel, or 3.5 percent.
Brent crude, an international benchmark for oil, fell 75 cents to $109.58 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Weak earnings from Ford and Amazon, in particular, helped dent sentiment in U.S. stock markets. A drop in Ford sales in the U.S. suggested consumer spending on transportation and fuel in the world's largest economy might not remain as strong as expected. The Dow Jones industrial average and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index each dropped about 0.8 percent.
At the gas pump, U.S. drivers are paying an average of $3.69 a gallon heading into the weekend. That's up about 14 cents from a month ago and is 18 cents higher that at this time last year.
In other energy futures trading in New York:
— Wholesale gasoline declined 1 cent to $3.08 a gallon.
— Heating oil fell 3 cents to $2.99 a gallon.
— Natural gas fell 6 cents to $4.65 per 1,000 cubic feet.
