Oil Slips to 22-Month Low on Bleak Outlook

The grim company news helped send the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 4.7% Wednesday, with Asian and European stocks following suit Thursday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 5.3% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 5.9%. London's FTSE was down 1.9% and Germany's DAX was 1.2% lower.

Oil traders have looked to stock markets for guidance on investor expectations about economic growth.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40% of world supplies, has signaled it may cut production before its next meeting in December on top of a 1.5 million barrel reduction in output quotas last month.

Thursday's pessimistic IEA oil demand forecast could speed up OPEC's decision for another quick production cut.

"This will make the case for OPEC to cut at least a further 1 million barrels a day as they need the world to return to just-in-time supplies," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 2.89 cents to $1.81 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 2.76 cents to $1.22 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery slid 11.3 cents to $6.29 per 1,000 cubic feet.