| Shares End Low on Continued Credit Worries; Autos Slide
European shares closed lower on Friday for the second straight session, with financials under pressure amid continued worries about credit market exposure and as evidence of earnings damage emerged at Belgium lender Dexia. With crude oil futures rallying and dollar weakness continuing, auto producers including Porsche, Fiat and Renault also skidded lower. Porsche lost 5.5%, Fiat declined 3.2% and Renault slipped 2.6%. Overall, the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index lost 0.9% at 362.72. The index has spent two-thirds of November's twelve trading sessions in the red, with Friday bringing the number of down days to eight because of the ... .
CME bid spurs fears of merger monster
THE commodities boom is intensifying the merger mania among the world's financial exchanges. But the $US11 billion ($12.4 billion) bid by CME Group to acquire Nymex Holdings may fuel worries that consolidation is leaving the survivors with too much power. A purchase of the 135-year-old New York Mercantile Exchange's owner by CME, parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, would create the largest exchange in the world, with a stock market value of about $US45 billion. And acquiring Nymex's crude oil futures, one of the largest commodity contracts in the world, would fill the last major hole in the 110-year-old Chicago exchange's product line-up, while squeezing remaining rivals in the energy market. The deal also highlights some unsettling consequences of the global scramble for alliances and market share in trading financial securities.
Wall Street rallies on optimism about rate cuts
Earlier in the day, U.S. oil futures set an intraday record above $101. In contrast, Tuesday's record high in oil, however, caused a late-day sell-off in stocks. Shares of Chevron Corp <CVX.N>, which began trading as a Dow component on Tuesday, rose 1.8 percent to $86.34 on the New York Stock Exchange. Chevron was among the major advancers in both the Dow and the S&P 500. Shares of HP, which reported quarterly profit that beat Wall Street's estimates late on Tuesday, climbed to $47.44, while IBM shares rose to $107.85. On the Nasdaq, shares of mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc <QCOM.O> led advancers with a gain of 3.4 percent to $43.37. Minutes from the Fed, which cut the target for its benchmark rate by half a percentage point to 3 percent at the January meeting, said it had lowered its growth forecast for 2008.
Oil price hits new record of $US101.32 a barrel
WORLD oil prices hit a new record of $US101.32 ($110.48) a barrel in Asian trading today on renewed concerns over global crude oil supplies. New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, closed overnight up 73 cents at an all-time high of $US100.74. The latest price spike burst Tuesday's record price of $US100.10 and record close at $US100.01. In London, Brent North Sea crude for April delivery settled 14 cents lower at $US98.42, after striking a record $US98.70 Tuesday. Prices have soared amid growing speculation OPEC, which supplies about 40 per cent of the world's oil, may cut output at its March 5 meeting in Vienna, anticipating a fall in demand at the end of the northern hemisphere winter and a US economic slowdown, analysts said. "Supply worries and comments by some OPEC members that the group might not raise output at their March meeting provided the catalyst for the sharp rally," said Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish.
Oil markets breach $100 a barrel for first time
Investors in oil futures drove prices above $100 a barrel today at market close, marking the first time crude has ever closed at three figures. Analysts hypothesized investor fears about a possible OPEC production cut next month, concern over Alon USA's Big Spring oil refinery explosion Monday, which injured four and put the plant out of commission for at least two months, and the heightened political tensions between the United States and Venezuela. Aggregate data from MSN Autos placed the average price per gallon at Dallas pumps at $2.92 on Tuesday afternoon. The national average price per gallon is $3.03. .
Apache enjoys doubling of quarterly profit
Apache Corp., the largest U.S. investor in Egypt, said Thursday that its fourth-quarter net income doubled because of record oil prices and increased production. Profit jumped to $1.07 billion, or $3.19 a share, from $520.8 million, or $1.56, a year earlier, Houston-based Apache said. Profit excluding the impact of tax-rate changes and currency fluctuations was $2.92 a share, 44 cents higher than the average of 26 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. U.S. oil futures traded 50 percent higher than a year earlier in the fourth quarter on their way to topping $100 a barrel for the first time in January. About half of Apache's production is oil. More than 85 percent is sold at the going rate, rather than under hedging contracts that lock in prices. "Every day that we see $90 oil is a very good day," Chief Financial Officer Roger Plank told investors at an industry conference in November.
Dow industrials up triple digits, reversing earlier triple-digit loss
NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- The Dow industrials rallied triple digits in afternoon trading Wednesday, reversing triple-digit losses seen earlier, as oil's surge to record highs above the $100 mark could no longer dampen enthusiasm over a slight improvement in housing starts and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (NYSE:HPQ) strong quarterly results and outlook. The Dow industrials was up 108 points at 12,445, with 22 of 30 components trading higher. Earlier in the session, the Dow was down as much as 109.50 points. On Tuesday, the blue chip barometer blew a 157-point intraday gain to close down 11 points as March crude oil futures closed settled above the $100 mark for the first time on the New York Mercantile Exchange. March crude was last up 73 cents at $100.74, paring gains to an earlier high of $101.32.
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