NEW YORK, N.Y. – Energy stocks are leading a decline in U.S. indexes as the price of crude oil plunges again.
Chevron and Exxon Mobil fell the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average in midday trading Wednesday. Each stock fell about 3 per cent.
The Dow was down 129 points, 0.7 per cent, to 17,671 as of 11:55 a.m. Eastern time.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 12 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 2,047. The Nasdaq composite fell 17 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 4,749.
The price of crude oil sank $3.15, or 5 per cent, to $60.68 a barrel in New York.
Oil dropped on reports that OPEC had slashed its estimate of how much crude it will need to produce next year due to rising supplies from other producers.
