To: Junkyardawg who wrote (46571 ) 7/24/2000 4:34:12 PM From: Original Mad Dog Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 63513 biz.yahoo.com Monday July 24, 4:03 pm Eastern Time Collapsing gasoline leads U.S. oil to two month lows By Matthew Robinson NEW YORK, July 24 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil prices tumbled to the lowest levels seen since early May on Monday as the price of the market's main summer market driver, gasoline, fell out of sky. September crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) traded as low as $27.96 barrel -- the first sub-$28 trades for over two months and a full $4.50 down in the last week. Prices settled at $28.02, down 54 cents on the day. Losses were led by gasoline which dropped five cents Monday, settling at 86.20 a gallon. Falls in the last two trading days alone have taken 10 percent off the product's value, traders say. Prices have weakened on growing evidence that Saudi Arabia was fulfilling its pledge to inject another 500,000 barrels per day of crude into markets independent of other members of the Organzation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Further bearish sentiment crept into the market Monday following a report by the Middle East Economic Survey that other members of the cartel, including the United Arab Emirates, could join the kingdom in raising output. However, Kuwait, one of the few OPEC nations capable of increasing output, said on Monday that it had no plans to do so and said that the cartel's price mechanism as a deciding factor in decision. Monday's liquidation of long gasoline positions confused traders who cited three refinery outages in Texas as bullish indicators. Tight gasoline supplies held crude futures over $30 a barrel for most of the summer. In the oil equities market, the volatile oil services index (^OSX - news) took the brunt of losses, dropping over five percent in late Monday trade.