July 7, 2008
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Oh. I use to love this shit when I was little. Don’t laugh, I know you was feeling it too. Stop frontin. Just enjoy. BLAMMMM!!
July 7, 2008
NEW YORK – Oil prices dropped sharply Monday, erasing many of the previous week’s record gains in a single session as concerns about conflict in the Middle East appeared to ease.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $3.83, or about 2.6 percent, to $141.46 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract sank as low as $139.50, or $5.79 below Thursday’s settlement price.
After the last few weeks’ run-up, however, analysts were skeptical that the drop signaled the start of a long-term decline. Prices set records in each of the last six sessions.
“We’re just moving into a new and higher trading range” of about $140 to $146 a barrel, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. “We’ll probably consolidate there for a week or two … then probably push back into new record territory.”
In the U.S., record retail fuel prices edged even higher as Americans made their way home at the end of the long Independence Day weekend, typically one of the busiest driving periods of the year.
A gallon of regular gasoline now costs $4.108, a tenth of a penny more than than the previous day’s high, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Diesel is also at a record, of $4.801, up nearly a penny.
Americans are now paying more than $1 billion more for gasoline per day than they did five years ago, according to an OPIS report Monday. In June, the world’s largest oil consumer spent about $47.38 billion on the motor fuel _ nearly three times as much as in 2003.
Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at OPIS, said retail gas costs will likely continue to rise. He predicted oil prices will continue to climb, and that could push prices at the pump up by as much as 25 to 30 cents per gallon more before the end of summer.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anything that’s going to drive (oil) prices down at this point, even reduced demand,” Rozell said. “There’s so much momentum with money going into commodities right now, it’s going to continue to go up.”
Fears that a fresh conflict in the Middle East could cut oil supplies eased over the weekend.
Iranian state media reported Friday that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran’s top nuclear negotiator have agreed to the latest in a series of talks during the second half of July over Iran’s nuclear program and the enrichment of uranium.
“The Iranian situation turned confrontational last week which raised valid concerns in the oil market (over a possible attack). Now that seems less likely and this is a positive development,” said John Vautrain, an analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
The contract hit a trading record of $145.85 on Thursday in New York before settling at a record close of $145.29 a barrel. There was no floor trade Friday in the U.S. because of the July Fourth holiday.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil said surging oil prices aren’t likely to fall amid strong demand, especially from China and India.
Khelil also told an energy conference in Algiers on Sunday the steady increases of late were unrelated to supply and demand, blaming the weak U.S. dollar, oil’s primary currency of exchange. Khelil said he believes the reason the dollar has fallen against other currencies is the string of interest rate reductions over the past year to boost the American economy.
A falling dollar has helped boost oil prices around 50 percent this year as investors often buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation when the greenback weakens. Also, a struggling dollar makes oil less expensive to investors overseas.
The dollar fell marginally against the euro Monday.
In other Nymex trade, heating oil futures fell by 10.9 cents to $3.997 gallon while gasoline futures dropped 6.92 cents to $3.5018 a gallon. Natural gas futures lost 53.6 cents to fetch $13.041 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, August Brent crude fell $1.62 to $142.80 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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Associated Press Writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
July 7, 2008
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Things in the U.S. sure are tough. Brother, can you spare a euro? Signs saying “We accept euros” are cropping up in the windows of some Manhattan retailers. A Belgium company is trying to gobble up St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, the nation’s largest brewer and iconic Super Bowl advertiser.
The almighty dollar is mighty no more. It has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies, undercutting its role as the leading international banking currency. The long slide is fanning inflation at home and playing a major role in the run-up of oil and gasoline prices everywhere.
Vacationing Europeans are finding bargains in the U.S., while Americans in Paris and other world capitals are being clobbered by sky-high tabs for hotels, travel and even sidewalk cafes. Northern border-city Americans who once flocked into Canada for shopping deals are staying home; it’s the Canadians flocking here now.
Everything made in America _ from goods to entire companies _ is near dirt cheap to many foreigners. Meanwhile, American consumers, both those who travel and those who stay at home, are seeing big price increases in energy, food and imported goods. The dollar has lost roughly a quarter of its purchasing power against the currencies of major U.S. trading partners from its peak in 2002.
Since oil is bought and sold in dollars worldwide, the devalued dollar has made the recent surge in energy prices even worse for Americans, leading to $4 gasoline in the United States. Analysts suggest that of the $140 a barrel that oil fetches globally, some $25 may be due to the devalued dollar.
Further declines in the dollar will add to oil’s appeal as a commodity to be traded.
Oil, suggests influential energy consultant Daniel Yergin, is “the new gold.”
The limp greenback has had one big benefit to the U.S. economy: Since it makes American goods cheaper overseas, it has helped manufacturers who export and other U.S. based companies with international reach. Exports have been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise darkening U.S. economy.
Franklin Vargo, vice president of international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers, welcomes the dollar slide, as do members of his organization.
“We can see that, when the dollar’s not overpriced, that people around the world want American goods and our exports are going gangbusters now,” he said.
He doesn’t see the dollar as undervalued. He sees it as having being overpriced in the 1990s _ and what’s happened since as something along the lines of a correction.
Still, Vargo acknowledges the dollar’s decline has brought a measure of pain to some consumers. “As the dollar has gone down in value, that has added to the dollar cost of oil. No question. So having the dollar decline is not unambiguously a plus. That’s why we say there’s got to be a balance there somewhere. What we want is a Goldilocks dollar. Not too strong, not too weak. But just right. And only the market can determine that,” Vargo said.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said expanding exports due to a weak dollar are “an important source of growth, but it doesn’t add a lot to jobs, it doesn’t mean very much for the average American household. For the average American, for the average consumer, these are pretty tough times.”
The loss of the dollar’s purchasing power and international respect has some experts worrying that the euro might one day replace the dollar as the so-called primary reserve currency. And that could trigger a dollar rout as foreign governments and international investors flee from U.S. Treasury bonds and other dollar-denominated investments.
Making matters worse: The gaping U.S. current-account deficit _ the amount by which the value of goods, services and investments bought in the U.S. from overseas exceeds the amount the U.S. sells abroad _ and the low levels of domestic savings means that foreigners must purchase more than $3 billion every business day to fund the imbalance.
Since roughly half of the nation’s nearly $10 trillion national debt is held by foreigners, mostly in Treasury bills and bonds, such a withdrawal could have enormous consequences.
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