<p>Crude oil fell more than $2 today on the New York Mercantile Exchange to just over $64 a barrel. With bearish fundamentals, waning seasonal demand and weakness in the Dow Jones, the price of crude oil may continue to slide through December. </p> <h2>Three Main Factors </h2> <p>&quot;We continue to have fundamental pressure in this market; in other words, supply and demand is bearish,&quot; said Darin Newsom, senior analyst with DTN, a market information service in Omaha, Nebraska. &quot;As long as this is the case, we are going to have a very difficult time to find anyone that's willing to step in and buy this market long-term. </p> <p>The futures contango continues in the crude oil market, with almost a dollar increase from August to September and another nearly dollar increase to October. </p> <p>&quot;Now, we also have bearish seasonal indexes,&quot; Newsom pointed out. &quot;In other words, this is just the time of year when we start to see demand coming down for gasoline. Demand itself for crude oil is also in a seasonal downturn, which puts additional pressure on the market.&quot; </p> <p>As summer vacations wind down, seasonal demand for gasoline also declines. Additionally, recent weakness in the stock market has resulted in declines in crude trading. </p> <p>&quot;Last but not least, we saw some early weakness in the Dow Jones over the last few weeks,&quot; Newsom added. &quot;This has been growing, and this is pulling some money out of commodities in general.&quot;</p> <h2>'Normal Slide' </h2> <p>These three factors have combined to take a big bite out of the price of crude, which saw a seven-month peak of nearly $73 in mid-June. Despite this, crude continues to trade at nearly double the lows of March 2009, when crude traded in the low-$30s. </p> <p>&quot;There are just so many things lined up right now saying that crude oil is a bit high at this point,&quot; explained Newsom. &quot;Seasonally, it starts to come down, and there's no reason why this year should be any different.&quot; </p> <p>In the past, the &quot;normal slide&quot; in crude oil prices from the first week in July through the first week in December average approximately 30%, Newsom revealed. </p> <p>&quot;So if that's the case, and let's just go back to the high of a couple of weeks ago of $72, I would say we should get back down to about $50, a little bit below $50, if we see a normal seasonal decline in this market,&quot; he predicted. &quot;Which looking at the spreads, looking at the way non-commercial traders are acting, there&rsquo;s no reason why we won't see a normal seasonal decline.&quot;</p> <h2>Natural Gas </h2> <p>Natural gas continued to trade below $4, settling for a slight drop to $3.487 mmBtu, caused by weak demand and oversupply. </p> <p>&quot;Basically, natural gas is just still dragging along the bottom, no reason to rally, reason to push it much lower,&quot; Newsom concluded.</p> &quot;Fundamentals remain bearish but stable; there's just no real reason to get too excited about this market.&quot;