Oil prices resumed their May swoon Thursday as concerns over the European economy had traders bailing out of energy commodities. The session was a volatile one. An early 2 percent gain had turned into an 8 percent decline by early afternoon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices settled about 2 percent lower, the 12th decline in 14 trading days this month. “Fear has obviously gripped the market, and we're trading accordingly,” analyst and trader Stephen Schork said. This was the final trading day for the June contract. Benchmark crude for June delivery lost $1.86 to settle at $68.01 a barrel on the Nymex. Prices tumbled as low as $64.24 earlier in the day, the lowest price for oil since July. Oil has shed nearly 22 percent of its value since hitting $86.84 on April 6. Most of the trading has moved to the July contract, which lost $1.68 to settle at $70.80 a barrel. In London, Brent crude July contact gave up $1.85 to settle at $71.84 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange. In other Nymex trading in June contracts, heating oil fell 4.33 cents to settle at $1.9019 a gallon, and gasoline lost 5.07 cents to settle at $1.9645 a gallon. The steep drop in oil prices should give Memorial Day weekend travelers a gift at the gas pump. Gasoline prices were down Thursday for the 14th day in a row, and they'll be pushed even lower by oil's continuing tumble. Futures contracts for most energy commodities slumped as financial troubles in Europe and weak jobs numbers in the US sparked a sell
