(raw materials / closing price /% change)

Light Crude 91.40 +0.43%

Gold 1,214.80 -0.02%

West Texas Intermediate oil dropped below $90 for the first time in 17 months amid signs that global supplies are outstripping demand. Brent, Europe's benchmark, headed for a bear market.

WTI fell as much as 2.8 percent to $88.18 a barrel in New York, bringing the decline to 9.9 percent this year. The U.S. benchmark pared losses. Brent has fallen 20 percent from its peak in June. Prices retreated yesterday after Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, cut its official selling price for crude to Asia to the lowest since 2008.

"It's been slaughter the last few days," Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York, said by phone. "Supply has been outpacing demand and that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. We finally broke through $90 after yesterday's move by the Saudis showed that they're fighting for market share."

U.S. output will rise next year to the highest since 1970, the Energy Information Administration forecast Sept. 9. The shale boom has turned the U.S. into the world's largest producer of oil liquids, reducing its appetite for imports as global demand growth slows. Losses in WTI below $90 would slow U.S. production, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said yesterday. Russian data showed the country's output rose to a near post-Soviet era record. Kurdistan's oil production over the next 15 months may increase by more than Chinese demand growth.

WTI for November delivery slipped 48 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $90.26 a barrel at 10:31 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell below $90 for the first time since April 24, 2013. The volume of all futures traded was more than double the 100-day average for this time of day. Futures declined 13 percent in the three months to Sept. 30, the worst quarterly performance in more than two years.

November gasoline futures fell 5.14 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $2.3983 a gallon on the Nymex. Futures touched $2.387, the lowest level since January 2011. Average pump prices in the U.S. fell to $3.328 a gallon yesterday, the lowest since February, according to the Heathrow, Florida-based American Automobile Association Inc., the nation's largest U.S. motoring group.

Brent for November settlement tumbled $1.33, or 1.4 percent, to $92.83 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It touched $91.55, the lowest since June 28, 2012. Volumes were 48 percent higher than the 100-day average. The grade traded at $2.57 premium to WTI, down from $3.43 at yesterday's close.

Gold prices rise restraint, receiving support from a weak production statistics in the United States and the first cases of infection with the Ebola virus, which caused a decline in the stock markets.

Stock markets in Japan and South Korea were down on Thursday, falling European and American markets.

"Given the likelihood of further weakening of the capital markets in conjunction with the still unstable situation in Hong Kong, we would not like to have a short position in gold, because we believe that precious metals will benefit from short covering before the weekend," - said analyst Edward Meir INTL FCStone.

Democracy activists, mostly young people, have been demonstrating for almost a week in Hong Kong, the Chinese government demanding greater freedom, in particular, the opportunity to choose the mayor of Hong Kong. Some banks and financial companies relocation of staff replacement offices on the outskirts of the city, in order to avoid disruptions.

The European Central Bank said today the program of asset purchases to stimulate the economy and inflation in the eurozone. The ECB plans to buy securities backed by assets, loans to help small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the basis of the European economy.

The world's largest reserves of the gold-exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Trust on Wednesday fell by 1.20 tonnes to 768.66 tonnes - the lowest level since December 2008.

The cost of the December gold futures on the COMEX today rose to 1224.00 dollars per ounce.