Crude oil heads toward $80

NEW YORK, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices, having taken a beating in the last month, stumbled overnight, then rose sharply Wednesday, heading toward $80 per barrel.

Crude oil prices are down more than 15 percent from early September and now appear to be following the same volatile behavior of equities.

Energy commodities lost traction with Goldman Sachs downgrading its global gross domestic product estimate for the year by nearly a full percentage point, its estimate dropping from 4.3 percent to 3.5 percent this week.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil pushed to an overnight low of $76.95 per barrel before climbing back to $79.81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Traders were reacting to news that European finance leaders were considering plans to shore up eurozone banks.

Home heating oil prices added shed 0.06 cents in late trading to $2.776 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline added 0.88 cents to reach $2.578 per gallon.

Henry Hub natural gas prices shed 0.7 cents to $3.563 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline dropped to $3.399 per gallon Wednesday from Tuesday's $3.408, AAA said.