Three-month decline in gas prices stalls briefly

After hitting a low of $1.6559 gallon Friday, gas prices rose over the weekend to break an 86-day streak begun in July after prices topped $4.11 per gallon, according to the Oil Price Information Service.

With average wholesale costs rising 20 cents per gallon or more since late November, "there's a sense that the Autumn low of $1.6559 gal may indeed represent the 2008 low water mark for street prices," OPIS analyst Tom Kloza said in a note.

Light, sweet crude for January on the New York Mercantile Exchange peaked briefly above $50 a barrel early Monday, but then fell $1.77 to settle at $44.51 with more dour economic news from both Asia and the United States.

Investors were looking at more signals of deteriorating demand, rather than at any OPEC action to cut supply, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

"They really can't surprise the market," he said of OPEC. "When we trade commodities, we have the tendency to buy the rumor and sell the fact, and of course right now we've done a pretty good job in pricing in the OPEC rumors."

On Monday, Toyota said it would indefinitely delay a new assembly plant in Mississippi due to auto industry downturn.

Growth in China's factory output fell to its lowest level in nearly seven years as trade plunged.

In London, January Brent crude fell $1.81 to settle at $44.60.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for 40 percent of global supply, has signaled it plans to announce a substantial reduction of output quotas at its meeting Wednesday in Algeria.