Getting your player ready...
NEW YORK — Oil prices fell below $56 Monday and gasoline futures plunged to a 52-week low as Japan joined a number of European nations in recession and provided even more evidence of a broad deterioration in demand for energy.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery dropped $2.11 to settle at $55.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures fell 5 percent, or 6.45 cents, to $1.1746 a gallon after earlier touching a 52-week low of $1.168.
