Oil’s half-off sale got better Thursday as crude tumbled $4 to $49.62 a barrel, with market watchers predicting even more slippage ahead — coming soon to a fuel pump near you.

Slowing demand and a slumping economy are behind crude’s astounding plunge of nearly $100 a barrel since July 11, when futures traded for more than $147 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to edge below the psychologically significant $50 barrier. The decline has brought relief to beleaguered consumers, dropping retail gas prices under $2 a gallon in many spots.

The gas-price party was in full swing Thursday in Pasadena, where two independent service stations were staging a mock price war to sell the cheapest fuel in town. Motorists were lined up around the corner for $1.77-a-gallon regular at the no-frills Garo Gas station on East Washington Boulevard and down the street at Fastop, where the price was $1.79.

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