U.S. Crude Oil prices dropped more than $4.0 a barrel on Monday on growing concerns about the economic outlook in the United States.

Today the Federal Reserve said the US industrial production fell more than forecast by 0.5 percent in February, a decline that hadn't appeared in three decades.

Declines of crude today are also part of a commodities sell off, specialists said.

Crude oil for April delivery fell $4.07 or 3.69 percent to $106.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by 3:23 p.m. Earlier on Monday trading prices hit a record high of $111.80.

London's Brent crude for May delivery dropped $4.74 or 4.41 percent t $102.82 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

The weakness of the dollar has caused crude prices to surge in the last weeks, since investors buy commodities as a hedge against inflation.

Today the U.S. Dollar fell again and global stocks in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand dropped after JP Morgan Chase &Co agreed to buy Bear Stearns for $236.2 million to prevent the spreading of a crisis in confidence in the financial system. Investors saw this action as a sign that the housing crisis is not far from getting to an end.

As a move to ease economic worries, the Federal Reserve of the United States reduced its discount rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.25 percent on Sunday.

Crude oil