Crude oil gives up ground

Crude oil prices dipped under $86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday after the eurozone's central bank lowered its economic forecast. The European Central Bank on Thursday kept its overnight lending rate intact, as did the Bank of England. But the ECB's 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 $1.89 to reach $85.99 per barrel. Home heating oil shed 2.8 cents to fall to $2.9627 a gallon, while reformulated blendstock gasoline lost 3.04 cents to $2.6074 a gallon. Henry Hub natural gas gave up 0.4 cents to $3.696 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.