Oil briefly fell below $90 a barrel this morning?its lowest level in eight months?underscoring traders' concerns that economic turmoil is shrinking demand for oil in the world's largest economies. West Texas Intermediate Crude for November delivery traded at $90.34 just after noon, after briefly touching $89.97. Analysts said the drop reflected concern among traders that the US Congress' $700 billion (Dh250bn) bailout of banks would not be sufficient to avert a prolonged worldwide recession. "There's a growing perception that the bailout package will put a further drag on US growth, and that really this is just a Band-Aid initiative to bail out Wall Street," said Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst at ANZ. A week ago, oil made headlines by dropping below $100, and the slide has been more or less continuous since then. Since prices peaked at $147 in July, oil has steadily fallen as speculators unwind commodities positions and international agencies continue to revise oil demand forecasts downwards. Mike Rothman, the head of integrated oil research at International Strategy and Investment in New York, has argued traders are also still uncertain about the extent to which investment banks have sold off large positions in oil contracts, and have been unable to determine the effect such sell-offs are having on the price. With agencies cstanton@thenational.ae
