Crude oil slides to less than $107

NEW YORK, March 2 (UPI) -- Crude oil slid to less than $107 per barrel Friday in New York but kept within the boundaries of its new comfort zone.

April delivery light sweet crude prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange spiked at $108.75 per barrel overnight then settled down at $106.69, off $2.15. Home heating oil shed 6.52 cents to $3.2101 per gallon. Reformulated gasoline lost 7.13 cents to $3.2804 per gallon.

Henry Hub natural gas prices added 1 cent to $2.473 per million British thermal units.

The national average price of unleaded gasoline climbed to $3.741 per gallon from Thursday's $3.738 per gallon, AAA said. A year ago the average price was $3.427.

Crude shot up from a $97 per barrel plateau as tensions mounted over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programs along with sanctions against the country.

On Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Agency said supplies are "tighter" as demand from emerging economies continues to grow.

Pressure eased slightly with Canada announcing its economic growth had slowed to 1.8 percent in December from 4.2 percent in November. But Canada is less of a guzzler than the United States or China and influences the global market that much less.