Business

Oil prices resumed their May swoon Thursday as concerns over the European economy had traders bailing out of energy commodities.

The session was a volatile one. An early two per cent gain had turned into an eight per cent decline by early afternoon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Prices settled about two per cent lower, the 12th decline in 14 trading days this month.

"Fear has obviously gripped the market, and we're trading  accordingly," analyst and trader Stephen Schork said.

This was the final trading day for the June contract. Benchmark crude for June delivery lost $1.86 to settle at US$68.01 a barrel on the Nymex.

Prices tumbled as low as US$64.24 earlier in the day, the lowest price for oil since July. Oil has shed nearly 22 per cent of its value since hitting US$86.84 on April 6.

Most of the trading has moved to the July contract, which lost $1.68 to settle at US$70.80 a barrel.

The steep drop in oil prices should give Memorial Day weekend travellers a gift at the gas pump. Gasolene prices were down Thursday for the 14th day in a row, and they will be pushed even lower by oil's continuing tumble.

Futures contracts for most energy commodities slumped as financial troubles in Europe and weak jobs numbers in the US sparked a sell-off on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 260 points, or 2.5 per cent, less than an hour before the close. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 were off by about as much.