NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures tumbled 4% to below $67 a barrel Thursday, hitting their lowest level in more than a month as demand concerns and falling stock markets continued to weigh on prices. U.S. stocks moved broadly lower after data showed resales of U.S. homes dropped in August for the first month in the past five. Meanwhile, natural gas remained lower after government data showed another build in last week's inventories. Crude for November delivery fell $2.70, or 3.9%, to $66.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract earlier dropped to $65.79, the lowest level for a front-month contract since Aug. 17. Thursday's decline followed oil's 4% drop in the previous session, after a government weekly report showed weak oil demand and higher crude imports pushed up U.S. crude inventories. Inventories of crude-oil, gasoline and other petroleum products all rose last week, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Gasoline supplied, an implied gauge of consumption, fell to 8.79 million barrels a day, the lowest level since late January. Crude imports averaged 9.8 million barrels a day last week, up 10% from a week ago, EIA data showed. "Bearish EIA inventory numbers once again highlighted oil consumption is in no way recovering as well as the broader economic conditions are," wrote Nimit Khamar, analyst at Sucden Financial Research, in a note to clients. Other energy futures also moved lower Thursday. October-reformulated gasoline fell 7.19 cents, or 4.2%, to $1.633 a gallon, and October heating oil lost 6.5 cents, or 3.7%, to $1.6944 a gallon. October natural gas lost 6.2 cents, or 1.6%, to $3.798 per million British thermal units. "The entire [energy] quarter has been one of rangebound price dynamics, and this last release of the quarter provides little ammunition for any immediate change," wrote Amrita Sen, an analyst at Barclays Capital, in a note. U.S. natural gas inventories rose 67 billion cubic feet to 3,525 Bcf in the week ended Sept. 18, the EIA reported Thursday. That's only 20 Bcf away from the record high hit in November, 2007. At the current level, stocks were 509 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 485 Bcf above the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by Platts had expected an addition of between 66 Bcf and 70 Bcf. After the data, October natural gas futures fell 1.6% to $3.798 per million British thermal. In economic news, first-time filings for state unemployment benefits fell sharply in the latest week to the lowest level in 10 weeks. For the week ended Sept. 19, initial claims fell 21,000 to 530,000. That is the lowest level since the week ended July 11 and the second-lowest weekly reading all year. See full story. Resales of U.S. homes dropped 2.7% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.10 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. In exchange-traded funds, the United States Oil Fund (USO 34.11, -1.02, -2.90%) lost 0.2%, and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG 11.78, +0.10, +0.87%) slid 0.2%.

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