Crude oil gives up ground

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NEW YORK, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices held under $87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday after the eurozone's central bank lowered its economic forecast.

The European Central Bank kept its overnight lending rate intact, as did the Bank of England. But the ECB economic forecast calls for a 0.3 percent drop in the eurozone's economy in 2013, a downgrade from the previous estimate, which called for 0.5 percent growth.

In New York, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped $1.43 to reach $85.99 per barrel. Home heating oil added 0.12 cents in late trading to reach $2.9444 a gallon, while reformulated blendstock gasoline gained .51 cents to $2.602 a gallon. Henry Hub natural gas gave up 2.3 cents to $3.643 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, AAA reported a national average price for regular unleaded gasoline at $3.379 per gallon, losing a 10th of a cent for the second consecutive day.