Oil Prices Slide To One-month Low As U.S. Data Feeds Fuel Demand Worry

U.S. stock prices sank as investors sold high-flying tech stocks and worried about economic recovery after Labor Department data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment reached a seasonally adjusted 881,000 for the latest week. Continuing claims remained high, with millions out of work.

The Dow tumbled 700 points and the Nasdaq pulled back by nearly 5%.

A day earlier both oil benchmarks fell more than 2% after U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed domestic gasoline demand last week fell to 8.78 million barrels per day (bpd) from 9.16 million bpd a week earlier. Consumption of other oil products also fell.

“The market failed to react positively to the drawdown in inventories and then threw in the towel for the Labor Day weekend,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.