Oil Holds Under $80 a Barrel
Oil closed below $80 a barrel for a second straight day Thursday, continuing a downward trend this week following reports showing lower retail sales in December and higher jobless claims last week, Bloomberg reported.
Benchmark light sweet crude futures have declined for four straight days on the New York Mercantile Exchange and finished the trading day Thursday down 26 cents, to $79.39 a barrel.
Oil on Wednesday had closed under the $80 mark for the first time this year; the last time it had closed below that level was Dec. 31.
Crude closed over $83 on Jan. 6 on the Nymex, a 15-month high.
Diesel retail prices have jumped 15.3 cents in the past three weeks to $2.751 a gallon, while gasoline’s national average has spiked 16.7 cents, to $2.751 as of the Monday, the Department of Energy reported.
