Updated with recent oil price and stock quotes.
NEW YORK (
) -- Crude futures soured in the afternoon, plunging below $79 as reports cited a newly emboldened dollar dragging on Texas tea.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery gave up $1.82 to settle at $78.68 a barrel on Monday afternoon. On Friday, the front-month contract slipped 69 cents to settle at $80.50. But that move down came during the same week that saw the price go as high as $82, its highest mark in a year.
With
renewed dollar strength and slumping commodities in the background, the financial services sector helped to pace a selloff on the major indexes, as the
KBW Bank Index
(BKX)
was down 4.1% in the afternoon.
With crude oil taking a turn, equities among the oil majors went lower in concert.
Chevron
(CVX) - Get Report
,
ConocoPhillips
(COP) - Get Report
and
Marathon Oil
(MRO) - Get Report
closed lower, down 1.6%, 2.4% and 1.6% each.
Shares of
Hess
(HES) - Get Report
and
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
, too, lost ground, sliding 2.6% and 0.5%.
Still, ADRs for
BP
(BP) - Get Report
finished in marginally positive territory in the afternoon, up 6 cents at $55.48. BP is set to release its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday morning.
-- Written by Sung Moss in New York
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