Crude Oil Prices Tick Downward

Crude oil futures were lower Thursday in New York, continuing the three-month slide that has coincided with traders' worries the global economy is slowing sharply.

November-dated light, sweet crude was down $2.05 to $86.90 a barrel, and Brent crude was off $1.04 to $83.32 a barrel.

Heating oil was losing 6 cents to $2.44 a gallon, and reformulated gasoline was fractionally weaker at $2.03 a gallon. Natural gas rallied a bit, adding 6 cents to $6.80 per million British thermal units.

Among energy stocks, Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks), ConocoPhillips (COP Quote - Cramer on COP - Stock Picks) and Chevron (CVX Quote - Cramer on CVX - Stock Picks) were all losing more than 5%. BP (BP Quote - Cramer on BP - Stock Picks) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A Quote - Cramer on RDS.A - Stock Picks) were showing similar declines.

Schlumberger (SLB Quote - Cramer on SLB - Stock Picks) and Halliburton (HAL Quote - Cramer on HAL - Stock Picks) were easing less than 1% each. The U.S. Oil (USO Quote - Cramer on USO - Stock Picks) ETF was down 1.8%.

Elsewhere in commodities, metals were flat. Gold was up 20 cents at $886.70 an ounce, and silver was giving back 4 cents to $11.83.