Falling crude demand in the world's largest consuming nation drove oil prices Monday to a new low for the year as the U.S. enters a corporate earnings season expected to be fraught with bad news, according to AP. The strained economy outweighed factors that would normally boost the market _ Mideast tensions, signs that OPEC was implementing large-scale production cuts, the ongoing Gazprom-Ukraine gas dispute and a winter season expected to deliver the coldest weather in a decade. «It's amazing what the market's ignoring,» said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. «That really tells you the story of how bearish this is.» Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell 6.6 percent, or $2.71, to $38.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Friday fell 87 cents to settle at $40.83. «Clearly, the focus this morning is back on the macroeconomics, and the concern that the demand for oil is just not going to be there any time soon, and there's going to be plenty of oil out there,» Flynn said.
