The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Oil rises near US$100 on weaker US$
- US stocks down on lingering worries over Europe
- US copper mining heiress dies aged 104
| Oil rises near US$100 on weaker US$ Posted: 24 May 2011 06:06 PM PDT NEW YORK: Oil rose close to US$100 per barrel Tuesday after the dollar weakened and a trio of major investment banks predicted that prices will rise later this year. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery added $1.89 to settle at $99.59 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude rose $2.43 to settle at $112.53 on the ICE Futures exchange. Prices climbed early as the dollar fell against other currencies. Oil, which is priced in dollars, tends to increase when the dollar falls and makes crude cheaper for investors holding foreign money. Oil also got a boost from reports by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley that said prices will almost certainly be higher later this year. The investment banks said the recent 15 percent drop was only a brief pause in what will likely be a long-term rise to near-record levels. Goldman Sachs expects WTI to hit $135 per barrel by the end of 2012. Morgan Stanley predicts Brent will average $120 per barrel in 2011 while J.P. Morgan said Brent should hit $130 per barrel in the third quarter. Even though U.S. drivers cut back on gasoline purchases this year as pump prices rose, the rest of the world is expected to keep consuming more. And OPEC countries will have an increasingly tougher time meeting demand for oil, the investment banks said. "It is only a matter of time until inventories and OPEC spare capacity will become effectively exhausted," Goldman Sachs analyst David Greely said in a research note. Analyst and trader Stephen Schork said oil prices could possibly rebound to the predicted levels later this year, but that would put extreme pressure on the economy. At those levels for oil, gasoline prices would rise well beyond $4 per gallon ($1.05 a liter) - squeezing travel budgets and likely forcing many Americans to drive less. "You have to look back at what that means for the consumer," Schork said. "We can get back to those levels, yeah. But I think it occurs at great detriment to the global economic recovery." MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks gasoline purchases at retail stations around the U.S., said Tuesday that demand has dropped for 9 weeks in a row. Its survey showed Americans bought an average of 386 million gallons of gasoline per day for the four weeks ended May 20. That's down about 1.6 percent from the same period last year. The recent drop in oil has taken some pressure off the U.S. economy. Gasoline pump prices fell this month after nearly reaching a national average of $4 per gallon. A gallon of regular is now $1.035 higher than the same time last year. In other Nymex trading, heating oil added 6.16 cents to settle at $2.9213 per gallon and gasoline futures gained 5.21 cents to settle at $2.958 per gallon. Natural gas lost less than a penny to settle at $4.391 per 1,000 cubic feet. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| US stocks down on lingering worries over Europe Posted: 24 May 2011 06:04 PM PDT NEW YORK: Continued worries about Europe's lingering debt crisis overshadowed a small rebound in oil prices and pushed stocks slightly lower on Tuesday. Oil rose nearly $2 to $99.59 per barrel after major banks raised their forecasts for crude prices. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley analysts predicted a rise in global demand would drive oil prices higher later this year. Goldman analysts say oil prices could reach $135 a barrel by the end of 2012. Stocks swung between gains and losses throughout the day, with Chevron Corp. and other energy companies posting the largest gains. Energy companies in the S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent, the most of the ten industry groups in the index. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 25.05 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 12,356.21. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.09 point to 1,316.28. The Nasdaq fell 12.74, or 0.5 percent, to 2,746.16. Stocks had been on a tear for the first four months of the year, lifted by stronger earnings reports, an improving job market and other signs of economic recovery. But all three major indexes have lost more than 3.5 percent this month, even as earnings remain strong. Widespread optimism has been shoved aside by a host of concerns, especially the impact of higher oil prices on consumer spending and the risk that Europe's debt troubles could get worse. Markets faced more troubling news about Europe on Tuesday, when Greece's main opposition party said it opposed the government's latest attempts to reduce debt. The news further dampened hopes that the country might be able to repair its finances enough to get another loan package from the International Monetary Fund. Ratings agency Moody's also warned that a restructuring of Greece's debt would be considered a default. That would cause borrowing costs for other debt-strapped European countries to soar. Uri Landesman, president of hedge fund manager Platinum Partners, said a Greek default could start a chain reaction affecting larger countries like Spain - the fourth-largest economy in Europe - wreaking havoc on the global economy. "If you had a Spanish default, there wouldn't be a single world bank not affected," Landesman said. U.S. banks had $187 billion at stake in Spain as of the end of last September, according to the most recent data from the Bank of International Settlements. The amount includes holdings of government debt, derivative contracts and other commitments. European stocks managed to recover from Monday's declines, in part because of a reassuring report from Germany that business optimism was holding steady. Both Germany's DAX and England's FTSE 100 ended the day 0.4 percent higher. France's CAC-40 added 0.3 percent. The euro also rose slightly against the dollar after falling to a two-month low Monday. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes rose slightly in April, but at a pace far below what would be normal in a healthy housing market. New home sales rose to an annual rate of 323,000 from 300,000 in March. New homes are unappealing to budget-conscious families because their median price is nearly 31 percent higher than previously-occupied homes. That's twice the price difference typical of a healthy economy. At their current rate, new-home sales are on track to experience a sixth straight year of declines. Energy company El Paso Corp. rose 6 percent, the most of any stock in the S&P 500, after saying it plans to split itself into two publicly-traded businesses by the end of this year. AutoZone Inc. rose 6 percent after the specialty retailer's earnings jumped 12 percent on strong sales of its Duralast auto parts. Stanley Black & Decker Inc. fell 2 percent after law firm Goldfarb Branham LLP announced they were investigating the company's board of directors over questions about CEO compensation. Medtronic Inc. fell 1 percent after its earnings fell short of forecasts. Falling shares outpaced rising ones by a small margin on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was 3.6 billion shares. - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| US copper mining heiress dies aged 104 Posted: 24 May 2011 06:02 PM PDT NEW YORK: Huguette Clark, a 104-year-old heiress to a Montana copper fortune who once lived in the largest apartment on New York City's Fifth Avenue, died Tuesday at a Manhattan hospital, as prosecutors were looking into her care and how her finances were being handled. The reclusive Clark spent the last two decades of her life in New York City hospitals. "Miss Clark's passing is a sad event for all those who have loved and respected her over the years," her attorney, Wallace Bock, said in a statement. "She died as she wanted, with dignity and privacy, and we intend to continue to respect her request for privacy." The statement was released by Bock's lawyer, Robert J. Anello, who declined to comment on a Manhattan district attorney's investigation into how Bock and Clark's accountant had handled her affairs. Anello represents Bock in the probe. The District Attorney's office has been looking into claims made by Clark's family that she was kept isolated from almost everyone except Bock and her accountant, Irving Kamsler, people familiar with the probe have said. They were in charge of a fortune estimated at a half-billion dollars. Distant relatives said they never saw her, and feared she may not have understood decisions the two men made for her. Clark inherited the riches amassed by her father in Montana's mining industry. William A. Clark was one of America's wealthiest men and built railroads across the country, founding Las Vegas in the process. Nevada's Clark County is named for him. Huguette Clark was born in 1906, when her 67-year-old father was a U.S. senator representing Montana and was married to a 28-year-old Michigan woman named Anna Eugenia La Chapelle. He died in 1925. At 22, she married a poor bank clerk studying law, but they parted ways after only nine months. As of last year, Clark still owned a 42-room, multi-floor apartment at 907 Fifth Ave.; a Connecticut castle surrounded by 52 acres of land; and a Santa Barbara, Calif., mansion built on a 23-acre bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Beginning in the 1960s, after her mother died, Clark rarely left her Fifth Avenue home overlooking Central Park. She was rarely seen by building staff, who delivered whatever she needed. She moved into a hospital in the 1980s. Clark shunned most visitors and left decisions in the hands of Bock - from bidding on vintage dolls at auction to settling disputes among her nurses. But Clark "has always been a strong-willed individual with firm convictions about how her life should be led and who should be privy to her affairs," Bock said in an affidavit filed in court last year. The Manhattan district attorney's office also prosecuted the case involving Brooke Astor, another heiress whose son was convicted of colluding with her attorney to steal millions of dollars from her. In September, two of Clark's nieces and a nephew asked a Manhattan judge to appoint a guardian for her. Citing press reports and other information, the relative accused the attorney and accountant of exercising "improper influence" over Clark and limiting family member's contact with her. The relatives - Ian Devine and Carla Hall Friedman, of New York, and Karine Albert McCall, of Washington, D.C. - said Clark was at risk of personal and financial harm" from Wallace and Bock. In addition, the relatives said, the men falsely claimed she did not want to see them. But state Supreme Court Justice Laura Visitacion-Lewis rebuffed the request for a guardian, writing that the relatives relied on hearsay and "speculative assertions" that Huguette Clark was incapacitated. No criminal charges have been filed against either Bock or Kamsler. Both have denied any wrongdoing in their dealings with Clark. A state grand jury issued subpoenas for documents that are part of the ongoing investigation. Attorney Elizabeth Crotty, who represents Kamsler, declined to comment on any investigation. She confirmed Clark's death, saying in a statement that "during her life and in her passing she always wanted to maintain her privacy, and we are going to continue that request." - AP Latest business news from AP-Wire Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Business To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan