Crude-oil prices plunged in early Friday trade in New York, with the contract headed for its seventh-straight weekly fall as investors increasingly focused on a coming OPEC meeting.

January West Texas Intermediate crude slid $3.73, or 6.8% to $50.90 a barrel. The contract rose nearly 2.3% on Wednesday, after losing 6.6% Tuesday to settle at a more than one-year low of $53.43. For the week so far, WTI is down 7.8%.