As recession fears continue to pound the world markets, oil and the major commodities continued their drop on Thursday as traders bet that demand for raw materials would continue to weaken on economic concerns.

Oil, which only months ago hit an all-time high of $147 a barrel, briefly dropped below $50 a barrel in early morning trading.

Oil & Natural Gas Markets

As of 12 p.m. Eastern time in New York, oil was down $3.25, or nearly 6%, to $50.89 a barrel. Crude had briefly touched below $50 a barrel to $49.91 -- the first time in 22 months.

Several analysts, including Deutsche Bank (DB), cut their full-year view on oil Thursday morning, saying that oil was going to continue to drop in what is an “already-oversupplied market.”

Oil got very close to a key support level of $49.90 a barrel, which was the January 2007 low, but bounced off that low.

According to reports by Deutsche Bank, without a cut in production or without the economy showing signs of getting better, crude could fall as low as $40 a barrel by the end of the month.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly known as OPEC, is expected to meet on Nov. 29 in Cairo, Egypt where the cartel is expected to consider an emergency cut in production. Analysts said that OPEC could consider a cut in production as much as three million barrels per day.

Natural gas futures were lower by 33.5 cents, or nearly 5%, to $6.478 per million British Thermal Units. This comes after the U.S. Energy Department said that the U.S.’s stocks of natural gas saw a build of 16 billion cubic feet last week.

Heating oil, a commodity closely tracked during the winter months, was lower by 1.172 cents to $1.7417 per gallon. Reformulated wholesale gasoline was lower by 2.69 cents, to $1.0801 a gallon.

Metals

Gold was higher by $14.60, or 2.06%, to $751.00 an ounce. Silver was lower by 23.5 cents, or 2.52%, to $9.075 an ounce.