The Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index was down 7.75 percent for the month of November, thanks mostly to losses in crude oil, gasoline and lead, according to Dow Jones Indexes/STOXX Ltd.

The Dow Jones-AIG Single Commodity Indexes for Zinc, Gold and Lean Hogs had the strongest gains with month-to-date returns of 4.67 percent, 2.28 percent and 1.34 percent, respectively.

The three most significant downside performing single commodity indexes were Unleaded Gas, Crude Oil and Lead, which were respectively down 25.28 percent, 21.00 percent and 18.92 percent in November.

Dow Jones-AIG is just one of the many indices tracking commodities that have seen enormous declines in the past few months as crude prices fell to below $40 bbl in December from peak at $147 bbl in July.

In what seems to be a far cry from the go-go days of recent years, the commodity losses are coming at a time when the global economy is being tested by the financial crisis that has gripped Wall Street since mid September, and have sent stocks prices to record lows.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 8,000 in 2008 for the first time since early 2003 after the Labor Department reported that prices of consumer goods and services fell by a record amount in October. Much of the decline was traced to a 14 percent drop in the price of gasoline, but the cost of other goods—including clothes, milk and vegetables—also fell sharply.

As prices fell, hedge funds that poured billions of cash into commodities during the booming years began to liquidate their long positions. Some analysts predict oil could fall to $30 bbl as the world economy worsens further.

The prospect of that happening were said to be high, as China was reportedly reducing its oil imports, while fuel consumption in the U.S. is on a downtrend, analysts said.