Oil prices ended the week with a modest rally Friday but couldn't erase one ugly October: Crude capped its biggest monthly drop since futures trading began 25 years ago, weighed down as a deflated US economy crushes demand for fuel. Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $1.85 to settle at $67.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier falling as low as $63.12. In London, Brent crude rose $1.61 to settle at $65.32 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Prices closed at $100.64 a barrel on the last trading day in September. That gives oil the biggest monthly slide since the launch of the Nymex crude futures contract in 1983. The previous record was a 30 percent drop set in February 1986. Crude hit a record price of $147.27 set on July 11. Oil's huge collapse - prices fell 32 percent for the month - has stunned oil-producing countries while giving cash-strapped US consumers a rare dose of relief. Pump prices have fallen by half since their summer peak above $4 a gallon ($1.07 a liter) - a drop that's expected to result in a staggering $100 billion in annual savings for American households. After trading lower most of the day, oil prices staged a late-session surge on the back of a Wall Street rally. Oil investors have been tracking equity indexes as a barometer of global economic health. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 144 points.
