Crude oil prices fall to half of record

Crude oil prices fell to a penny more than half July's record price, retracting 50 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange in just over three months.

Crude oil fell $5.11 Wednesday to $73.64 per barrel, a 6 percent drop on the day, as unsettled economies continued to support investors' fears of falling demand.

"The honeymoon relief package reaction now appears to be giving way to uncertainty over its impact on global demand," Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp. told The Wall Street Journal.

Heating oil prices fell 0.1108 cents to $2.165 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline fell 0.1315 cents to $1.753 per gallon. Natural gas prices slid 0.213 cents to $6.542 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $3.125 Wednesday, down from Tuesday's $3.163 a gallon, AAA said.