Stocks and markets in the News | Oil Futures: Oil Closes at $88 a barrel, lowest close since October.
By Myra P. Saefong and V. Phani Kumar , MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures dropped Wednesday to mark their lowest close since October as the U.S. dollar strengthened and as concerns over Spain and scaled-back expectations for Chinese economic stimulus dulled the prospects for oil demand. “It’s a continuation of the justified concerns about the dire state of the health of the European economy, which when coupled with outlooks such as my own that markets were relatively well supplied, eventually had to filter through into lower prices,” said Matthew Parry, a senior oil-market analyst at the International Energy Agency. The July contract for light, sweet crude-oil futures CLN2 -3.65% fell $2.94, or 3.2%, to settle at $87.82 a barrel on