Oil prices fell below $54 a barrel Thursday as dismal U.S. economic data and rising crude inventories outweighed the possibility of production cuts by OPEC and Russia.

By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for January delivery was down $1.19 to $53.25 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Markets in the United States were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, but electronic trading on the Nymex continued.

The dollar’s weakening against other major currencies helped the Nymex contract recover from a low of $52.62 earlier in the session.

Prices have hovered just above three-year lows this week as bad economic news painted a bleak picture of U.S. demand for crude.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday said orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged in October by the largest amount in two years.