The price of light, sweet crude oil for February delivery fell on Wednesday following dismal December retail sales results that indicate demand could be soft for some time.

Crude oil for February fell about 1.32%, or $0.50 per barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to settle at $37.28 per barrel.

In London on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, Brent crude rose 25 cents to settle at $45.08 a barrel.

Crude oil prices have fallen from as high as $50.47 last week, and appears to be headed back to its month-ago low of $33.87 per barrel, its lowest mark since 2004.

At the pump, however, gas prices continued to rise with per-gallon prices up by 0.2 cents to a national average of $1.79, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Residents of Alaska have the most expensive gas at $2.50 per gallon, while residents of Wyoming have the cheapest gas at $1.46 per gallon.

On the NYMEX, heating oil futures dropped 5.10 cents per gallon or 3.37% to reach $1.46, while natural gas for February delivery fell 21.4 cents to $4.97 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gasoline futures fell to $1.16 per gallon, a drop of 1.88 cents or 1.64%.

Gold fell for the third day in a row against a strong dollar, falling by 1.45%, or $11.90, to $808.20 per ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX. Gold has fallen 5.4% in the past three days, and is down 8.53% this month.

Silver didn’t fare much better, dropping 1.91% or 20.3 cents to $10.45 per ounce. The dollar, which generally moves in the opposite direction of precious metals, has gained almost 4% in January.

Copper for January delivery dropped 3.88% or 5.95 cents to hit $1.47 per ounce. Copper is up 5.59% for the month, but down 53.41% from one year ago.