oil prices

Oil prices are expected to reach record levels this winter, but many users are unable to switch to natural gas or electricity, whose prices are going in the opposite direction.

Oil prices hovered below $100 a barrel Friday in Asia amid encouraging signs the U.S. economy is slowly improving.

Four months ago, the world's energy watchdog took historic action to reduce oil prices. Since then, the financial outlook has considerably worsened and some Libyan oil has returned to the market.

But the price has remained above $100 a barrel.

In what can be viewed as a positive for drivers but a negative for the economy as a whole, oil prices slid more than 5 percent yesterday, continuing a backwards regression that started back to April.

Crude oil posted its sharpest fall since May on Monday as world stock markets plunged after an unprecedented downgrade of the US credit rating fueled fears of a double-dip recession in the world's biggest economy.

Stocks recovered somewhat from an initial sharp fall partly caused by a on a sudden drop in oil prices. News Greece had reached an agreement on an austerity plan seemed to help.

The United States and other nations that depend on oil imports will release and sell 60 million barrels of crude from emergency stocks in an effort to ease the strain of high oil prices on the global economy.

The Dow Jones and other market indexes fell on a combination of slow growth, Europe’s debt crisis and the use of oil reserves.

Oil prices fell to near $94 a barrel Thursday in Asia amid investor concern U.S. economic growth and crude demand could disappoint this year.

The biggest Internet IPO since Google combined with a drop in oil prices to send the broad stock market higher.