NEW YORK -- Crude futures began the week by tumbling more than $1 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
December crude fell by late morning to just under $46 per barrel, the latest in a recent stretch of significant losses since futures topped out at more than $55 per barrel in October.
News Iran had agreed to back off from its uranium-enrichment program seemed to calm the market as did the perception that an oil workers strike in Nigeria would have little impact on crude exports.
The rest of the NYMEX energy complex softened with crude. December heating oil was off more than 3 1/2 cents at around $1.32 per gallon while gasoline also lost more than 3 1/2 cents and was trading around $1.22 per gallon.
The recent bearishness on NYMEX should benefit consumers as retail gasoline averaged around $1.97 per gallon for regular on a national basis, according to the Automobile Association of America.
