Gas prices rose further into record territory Monday, pulled higher by resurgent oil futures and a growing belief that gasoline supplies are falling as the summer driving season approaches.

Oil futures, meanwhile, jumped by more than $2 a barrel as traders bet the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates. Comments from OPEC suggesting the cartel plans no production increases also boosted oil prices.

At the pump, the national average price of a gallon of gas jumped 3.6 cents over the weekend to a record $3.339, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That's 58 cents higher than a year ago. In New York Mercantile Exchange trading, May gasoline futures rose 2.68 cents to settle at $2.7835 a gallon.

 See Also : Iran to OPEC: Stop Oil Sales in Dollars
 Source : Yahoo Business 

Lloyd's of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008.

The world's oldest and biggest insurance market said that though the lack of major disasters had allowed firms to push up profits 5% in 2007, underwriting margins were being squeezed. Almost half of the 320-year-old market's business was conducted in the US last year. It is a major insurer of the Florida seaboard and oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico. In 2005, a series of natural disasters culminated in Hurricane Katrina clattering into New Orleans. The clean-up bill pushed Lloyd's into a £103m loss.

However, two years of relatively few claims for environmental damage have increased competition in the sector. "On the back of a good performance in 2007 we need to sound a note of caution for 2008 because of softening market conditions and because of the financial turmoil we have seen," said Richard Ward, chief executive of Lloyd's.

 Source : Guardian UK

The dollar has plummeted against all major currencies on dire US retail sales and fears that the Federal Reserve may need to slash interest rates further to stop the downward spiral in the credit markets.

The greenback broke below 100 yen in a day of wild trading, setting off alarm bells at Japan's Keidanren industry lobby. It touched a record $1.5620 against the euro and came within a whisker of parity with the Swiss franc for the first time in history. The plunge came amid an investor flight into commodities, seen as a way of insulating wealth from the dollar's decline. In the US, crude oil reached a record $111 a barrel despite rising inventories.

 Source : Telegraph UK

Wall Street joined the global equity market sell-off this afternoon while the FTSE 100 ended the day down 1.5% as fears over a weak dollar, credit market turmoil and impending recession continue to rattle nerves.

Markets in Asia, Europe and the US have all been sold off over the last 24 hours. The dollar is also coming under significant pressure, not helped by more bad news from the US economy today, this time on high street spending. Meanwhile oil and gold have shot up to record highs on the back of the weakening US currency.

The dollar fell below 100 yen for the first time in 12 years today and hit a new record low against the euro amid fears in currency markets that the US financial system is vulnerable to the recession spreading from the crisis-hit housing sector.

 Source : Guardian UK

The national average price of a gallon of gas rose 0.7 cent overnight to $3.222 a gallon, 69 cents higher than one year ago, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Last May, prices peaked at $3.227 as surging demand and a string of refinery outages raised concerns about supplies.

That record will likely be left in the dust soon as gas prices accelerate toward levels that could approach $4 a gallon, though most analysts believe prices will peak below that psychologically significant mark. In its last forecast, released last month, the Energy Department said prices will likely peak around $3.40 a gallon this spring; a new forecast is due Tuesday.

Retail gas prices are following crude oil, jumped 24 percent in a month on its way to setting new inflation-adjusted records four times last week. On Monday, crude prices surged to yet another record after the Commerce Department said wholesale sales jumped by 2.7 percent in January, their biggest increase in four years, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

 Source : Yahoo News

``I think a trading range between $80 and $120 a barrel this year is about right,'' Peter Barker-Homek, the head of the United Arab Emirates state-controlled company, which is also known as Taqa, said in an interview in Dubai today. ``But with the softness of the dollar, and the occasional interruptions that you have because of politics, I think we could see $120 oil.''

 Source : Bloomberg.com

The Year of the Rat threatens to see a build-up of international tensions, natural and air disasters, and a more turbulent stock market, soothsayers and analysts say.

As the Year of the Pig ends tonight, followers of Chinese superstition will be scurrying to consult fortune-tellers, astrologers and feng shui geomancers to guide their year ahead.

Chinese fortunes are based on a belief that events are dictated by the different balances in the elements that make up the earth -- gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

Feng shui master Raymond Lo says this year will see the earth element sitting atop water, suggesting an outward solidity built on sliding foundations.

"The earth on top is Yang earth which symbolises a mountain, and mountain gives a sense of stability and firmness. But such floating earth in the ocean is weak in foundation and the stability appears to be fragile," Lo said.

 Source : Yahoo News

The Commerce Department's report on the gross domestic product, released Wednesday, showed an economy that had deteriorated considerably during the October-to-December quarter as worsening problems in the housing market and harder-to-get credit made individuals and businesses more cautious in their spending. Fears of a recession have grown, even as inflation remained elevated.

For all of 2007, the economy grew by just 2.2 percent, the weakest performance in five years, when the country was struggling to recover from the 2001 recession. The housing collapse dealt the economy its biggest blow last year. Builders slashed spending on housing projects by 16.9 percent on an annualized basis, the most in 25 years.

The report came as the Democratic-run Congress and the Bush administration continue to work on a program of tax rebates and business incentives aimed at stimulating the economy.

 Source : Yahoo News

It said that Friday's employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession.

Its view is controversial, with banks such as Lehman Brothers disagreeing.

But a reserve member of the committee that sets US rates warned that it could do little about the below-trend growth expected in the next six months.

"I am concerned that developments on the inflation front will make the Fed's policy decisions more difficult in 2008," Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said.

He was referring to the problems faced by the US Federal Reserve, which might want to cut interest rates to avoid a recession, but is worried about inflationary factors such as $100-a-barrel oil.

 Source : BBC News

After a record-smashing year with oil peaking at $99 a barrel in 2007, a triple-digit world of crude oil awaits in the coming year, energy experts say. 

A financial crisis will likely send the U.S. dollar into a free fall of as much as 90 percent and gold soaring to $2,000 an ounce, a trends researcher said.

"We are going to see economic times the likes of which no living person has seen," Trends Research Institute Director Gerald Celente said, forecasting a "Panic of 2008."

"The bigger they are, the harder they'll fall," he said in an interview with New York's Hudson Valley Business Journal.

 Source : United Press International

At 8:30 a.m., the dollar was quoted at 107.90-108.00 yen, compared with its 5 p.m. Thursday quotes of 109.11-14 yen in Tokyo.

In Asian trading on Friday, the U.S. currency tumbled to as low as 107.55 yen. Then it rallied to the upper 107 yen level in later London trading.

U.S. financial markets were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday while Japanese markets were closed Friday for a national holiday.

At 8:30 a.m. in New York, the euro traded at $1.4800-4810 and 159.80- 90 yen against $1.4813-4816 and 161.66-70 yen in Tokyo.

In earlier Asian trading on Friday, the single European currency reached $1.4968, the highest level since its introduction in 1999.

 Source : Breitbart / AP

After what Los Angeles money manager Arnold Silver called "a brutal three days," the question is: What now for the market?

A Wall Street superstar this year who runs Balestra Capital Partners, Jim Melcher, says he's "worried about a recession. Not a normal one, but a very bad one. The worst since the 1930s. I expect we'll see clear signs of it in six months with a dramatic slowdown in the gross domestic product."

The consequences are evident in minds and mortar: anger at Chinese motor-fuel pumps and inflated confidence in the Kremlin; new weapons in Chad and new petrochemical plants in Saudi Arabia; no-driving campaigns in South Korea and bigger sales for Toyota hybrid cars; a fiscal burden in Senegal and a bonanza in Brazil. In Burma, recent demonstrations were triggered by a government decision to raise fuel prices.

 Source : Washington Post

The euro rose to a record high of $1.4752 in European trading before falling back to $1.4673 in the late afternoon, above the $1.4667 it bought Thursday. Its previous trading high was $1.4730 on Wednesday.

The dollar is down nearly 12 percent against the euro since the start of the year.

The dollar gained on the euro after the European Union, blaming oil prices and market turmoil, cut its economic forecasts for the next two years, with growth now expected to slow to 2.4 percent in 2008 and 2009.

Britain's pound went as high as $2.1161 before falling to $2.0909, below the $2.1087 it bought Thursday.

The dollar weakened against many of the European currencies and the yen on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said economic growth would slow noticeably in the United States in the coming months while rising oil costs would increase inflation pressures.

The dollar also has been suffering from speculation that the Fed, which has cut its benchmark rate twice, may keep doing so even as its European counterparts hold their rates steady or raise them.

 Source : Yahoo Financial

The price of oil rose to a record above $96 a barrel Thursday after a surprise drop in U.S. crude stockpiles raised concerns about supplies for coming winter demand. Other energy futures also gained.

It was the second week in a row the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a sharp and unexpected drop in oil inventories.

"The decline in U.S. crude oil inventories has been a key driver of oil prices," said David Moore, commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose as high as $96.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before dropping to $95.28 a barrel by afternoon in Europe.

 Source : AP / Myway News

The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 - much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week, on Friday hitting more than $90 (£44) a barrel.

"The world soon will not be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy," said Hans-Josef Fell, EWG's founder and the German MP behind the country's successful support system for renewable energy.

 Source : The Guardian UK

Oil prices surpassed $90 a barrel for the first time Thursday as the falling dollar drew new foreign investors and speculators to dollar-denominated energy futures.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery hit $90.02 in electronic trading Thursday evening before returning to around $89.60. Earlier, prices had risen $2.07 to settle at a record $89.47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

While oil prices have risen sharply in dollar terms in recent days, the steadily weakening dollar means oil futures are seen as a bargain overseas. Data released in recent weeks shows speculative buying of oil futures is on the rise. Buying by foreign investors sends prices up, which draws more speculators into the market.

 Source: Yahoo Economy News

Many analysts say crude inventories are falling and point to Thursday's Energy Department report that showed domestic crude supplies fell last week and an International Energy Agency report that concluded oil inventories held by the world's largest industrialized countries have fallen below a five-year average.

"This is a concern," Stephen Schork, a trader and analyst in Villanova, Pa., said in a research note. "Despite relatively weak demand ... crude stocks still fell last week."

But others think the supply shortfall in this week's inventory report are an anomaly. They doubt demand is as strong as recent forecasts by the Energy Department and the IEA suggest. These analysts expect oil prices will soon begin a seasonal decline to $70 a barrel, or lower.

 Source : Breitbart.com

The world economy has managed, with some indigestion, to swallow the rise of oil prices past $80 a barrel. How well could it survive $100 a barrel?

The answer is quite well -- so long as several conditions still hold true. The price rise would probably have to be gradual. Inflation couldn't get so bad as to force big interest-rate hikes. Oil-rich nations would need to pump their profits back into U.S. and European economies.

All of this has happened so far. The happy confluence may continue, though fears remain strong that high energy prices will tip the U.S. into recession.

 Source : Wall Street Journal News

The global credit crisis is not over, and its effects will be long lasting, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The organisation's twice-yearly Global Financial Stability report warned that many of the lax lending practices of the past few years will have to change, and economic growth will be crimped by the current correction.

Adding to the gloom, Rodrigo Rato, the IMF's managing director, said yesterday the US will bear the brunt of the economic consequences of the crisis, with the bulk of the impact not being felt until next year.

 Source : Independent UK

The dollar fell to a new all-time low Wednesday in late European trading amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates and on a warning from the U.S. treasury secretary that turbulence in financial markets may linger.

The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3901 in late afternoon European trading -- topping its previous record of $1.3852, reached on July 24. It almost immediately fell back to $1.3889, compared with the $1.3832 it bought in New York late Tuesday.

The sudden surge came after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, speaking to officials from some of the biggest financial firms in the U.S., said that volatility in financial markets will take some time to be resolved, particularly in the area of subprime mortgages.

 Source : Yahoo News

A rash of fires at BP's oil fields in Alaska's North Slope added to the record run, though BP said the accidents had minimal impact to production that was already being curtailed by routine maintenance.

The surge in oil prices came a day after OPEC agreed to a small production hike in an effort to soothe consumer nations' fears that soaring crude costs could slow economic growth.

 Source : Reuters Economy

 Source : Telegraph / Money

"The Bank for International Settlements issued a warning this week that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policies have created an enormous equity bubble which could lead to another “Great Depression”. The UK Telegraph says that, “The BIS--the ultimate bank of central bankers--pointed to a confluence of worrying signs", citing mass issuance of new-fangled credit instruments, soaring levels of household debt, extreme appetite for risk shown by investors, and entrenched imbalances in the world currency system."

 Source : Global Research

"The dollar traded within a cent of a record low against the euro and the weakest in 26 years versus the British pound on speculation higher interest rates in Europe will lure investors away from U.S. assets. Central banks in England and the EU are expected to raise rates soon. With the dollar trading at $1.3627 to the euro, Tempus Consulting trader Mark Meadows expects "to see the euro-dollar test the record level this week.''

 Source : Chicago Sun Times

His audacious argument that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole is likely to lead to an international outcry. Some commentators have already observed it is further evidence of growing Russian assertiveness under its authoritarian president.

 Source : DailyMail.co.UK