Crude oil prices fall Monday morning

New York -- Crude oil prices fell on the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday morning as speculators pulled away and financial worries seeped into the commodities markets.

"The collapse of Bear Stearns has caused investors to focus more on how a recession in the U.S. would cut oil demand," Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin and Gertz told The Wall Street Journal.

On the exchange, crude oil prices fell 59 cents Monday morning to $101.25 a barrel.

Heating oil prices fell slightly to $2.975 per gallon, down 0.0022 cents.

The price of reformulated blendstock gasoline was unchanged at $2.6051 per gallon.

Natural gas prices gained 0.06 cents to $9.125 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline fell to $3.26 per gallon Monday from Sunday's $3.264 per gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.