New York, Dhu-AlQa'dah 9, 1436, Aug 24, 2015, SPA -- US crude-oil prices continued to fall Monday, plunging below $40 a barrel to their lowest level since 2009 amid a global market sell-off sparked by concerns over China’s economic slowdown. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October delivery plummeted 6 percent to below $38 a barrel in morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract briefly fell below $40 for the first time since February 2009. Amid market turmoil over China’s economy, WTI fell 4.8 percent last week, marking its eighth consecutive weekly decline, the longest stretch of weekly losses in 29 years. The Shanghai stock market plunged 8.5 percent Monday, its sharpest one-day drop in eight years, as worries grew about the slowdown in China, the world’s biggest energy importer. The China stock rout spread to equity markets in Asia and Europe, and U.S. stocks plummeted in opening trade, pushing the Dow industrials down nearly 6 percent, before the three major U.S. indexes recovered about half their losses. --SPA 18:51 LOCAL TIME 15:51 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w