Oil Prices Fall To 18-Month Low on Recession Fears

New York, NY, Nov. 11, 2008--Oil prices fell to near an 18-month low at $60 a barrel Tuesday in Asia.

Optimism waned that a huge Chinese spending plan will avert a prolonged slowdown in the global economy.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down $1.47 to $60.94 a barrel, after falling as low as $60.29, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The contract overnight rose $1.37 to settle at $62.41.

Oil closed at $60.77 on Nov. 6, the lowest price since March 2007, and has fallen about 59 percent since reaching a record 147.27 in mid-July.

Oil prices and stock markets jumped Monday after China said it planned to spend $586 billion in a bid to spur economic growth. But pessimism soon returned as investors focused again on a swooning U.S. economy, which faces its worst recession in decades.

"The market is realizing that package can't prevent us from sliding into the mess we're heading toward," said Toby Hassall, an analyst with Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney. "The economic outlook is pretty bleak."