Oil Prices Headed Back Down on Consumer Sentiment

New York, NY, Aug. 17, 2009--Oil prices fell below $66 a barrel Monday as investors worried that crude demand will recover only slowly in the U.S. and brushed off upbeat economic growth data from Japan.

Benchmark crude for September delivery was down $1.63 to $65.88 a barrel by late morning in European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract tumbled $3.01 to settle at $67.51.

Friday's big selloff was triggered by a sharp drop in the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, a bad sign for crude demand, which has already been sluggish this summer.

Oil also followed stock markets, which fell heavily in both Asia and Europe.

Investors brushed off evidence that the global slump may be nearing an end. Japan said Monday that its economy grew an annualized 3.7 percent in the second quarter, breaking out of a yearlong recession.