Oil falls below $50 a barrel

The wild swing in the price of oil continued Thursday as crude dipped closed $50 US a barrel.

Light sweet crude oil for December delivery fell $4 US to finish at $49.62 US a barrel on the expiry date of the contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  The contract got as low as $48.64 earlier in the day. 

Oil is now at levels not seen since May 2005.

Economic worries have sent oil spiralling downward from the peak of $147.27 a barrel it hit back in July. A weakened economy has crimped demand for petroleum products in the U.S.

"People are saying this slowdown could be the worst since the Great Depression," said Toby Hassall, an analyst with investment firm Commodity Warrants Australia. "There's definitely fear out there that it's going to be pretty severe."

"Until we get past this malaise and gloom and doom, no one wants to step up and buy this market," said Mike Zarembski, senior commodity analyst at OptionsXpress.

Energy analyst Stephen Schork said there might not be much support for oil at $50 a barrel.

"If we're not out of these doldrums nine months from now we're looking at $30 oil," he said.