Crude oil prices plunged on Thursday, dragging New York's main contract below $100 a barrel for the first time since March 16, after disappointing US jobs data and the dollar's rise spurred demand fears.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for June, closed at $US99.80 a barrel, down $9.44, or 8.6 per cent, from Wednesday.
The WTI contract continued to fall after the market closed, heading toward $US98 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June slumped $10.39 to settle at $US110.8 a barrel.
Prices had moved sharply higher, with WTI almost reaching the $US115 a barrel mark on May 2, amid Arab unrest and the nuclear crisis in Japan that unfolded after the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster.
Booming commodities markets suddenly found themselves swept into sell-off mode in part spurred by a firming of the dollar, which makes dollar-priced oil and metals less attractive to investors.
Oil prices also took a hit after a US jobs report signalled the labour market recovery was struggling, ahead of Friday's key April employment numbers.
Silver plunged more than 10 per cent on Thursday, its biggest one-day drop in dollar terms since the Hunt Brothers price squeeze, dragging gold over three per cent lower as panic selling snowballed across the commodities sector.
Silver has now lost 30 per cent this week, well above the conventional criteria of 20 per cent for a bear market, since it surged to a record high near $50 an ounce last Thursday.
Silver's plunge for a fifth day led the decline in commodities.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index was set for its biggest weekly fall since late 2008 and US crude oil fell below $100 a barrel.
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