Gas dips lower; oil at 4-year low

There was slight movement overnight in the average price of gas, AAA Mid-Atlantic reported today.

The price for a gallon of regular no-lead was down 2 cents, to $1.94, in the five-county Philadelphia area.

South Jersey's average was down 1 cent, to $1.67.

The national average was unchanged at $1.80.

Diesel prices showed more movement: For the first time since April 24, the auto club said, the Philly area's diesel average was below $3, down 3 cents overnight to $2.99.

South Jersey's diesel average was down 2 cents, to $2.67, and the national average was down 2 cents, $2.72.

Meanwhile, oil prices sank today to lows last seen nearly four years ago as more bleak news from the world's largest economy boosted views that crude could tumble below $40 by the end of the year.

After sinking more than $1 earlier in the day to approach levels traded at in February 2005, light sweet crude was trading at $46.09, down 70 cents in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe. The contract fell 17 cents overnight to settle at $46.79.

"You could see prices testing $40 by the end of the year because the economic data are really ugly at the moment," said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. "Demand destruction is still very much the concern."

Oil prices have tumbled about 69 percent since peaking at $147.27 in July. But trader and analyst Stephen Schork suggested that the price decline had some ways to go before bottoming out, despite the arrival of the cold season in the United States and elsewhere in the Western hemisphere, which traditionally drives up demand.