Oil drops below $100 a barrel for the first time since May

The price of oil dropped below $100 per barrel for the first time in months on Tuesday, a continued sign of oil's modest but ongoing price declines after weeks of record prices at the pump. 

West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped by nearly 10 percent on Tuesday, coming in at $98 per barrel, the lowest since May 11. 

Gas prices have been declining slightly over the past week, coming down from an average of nearly $4.90 per gallon nationwide to about $4.80 during the week of July 4. 

Gas prices briefly eclipsed an average of $5 per gallon nationally in mid-June, an unprecedented record that brought significant pain at the pump and major criticism toward the Biden administration. 

The decline in crude oil prices also comes amid broader fears of a potential recession of the U.S. economy, with indicators already suggesting that the U.S. may have already entered recession territory.