Trade Crude Oil

Diane Alter – Fourth Estate Cooperative Reporter
New York, N.Y., United States (4E) – U.S. markets were little changed on the open Thursday as investors continue to worry about the situation in Greece and await the pricing of the highly anticipated initial public offering for Facebook. Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 16 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 3 points and the NASDAQ dipped 8. Stocks fell on Wednesday for a fourth straight session as pessimism over Greece’s financial situation persisted. While European leaders were vocal about their support for keeping Greece in the eurozone, they also cautioned that the ailing, debt-ridden country must stick with unpopular austerity measures if Greece is going to continue to receive help–mainly bailout money–to stave off a near-imminent default. In world markets Thursday, European stocks fell in midday trading. [...] Continue Reading…

Linda Young – Fourth Estate Cooperative Writer
Richmond, VA, United States (4E) – Investor Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A and BRK.B) is expanding its holdings in the newspaper business. Its subsidiary, BH Media Group, will pay $142 million to buy a controlling interest in the Media General newspaper chain, which owns 63 daily and weekly papers in the southeastern United States. The deal does not include the Tampa Tribune. In addition, BH Media will also loan Media General $400 million and give it a $45 million flexible credit line. Buffet is investing in newspapers at a time when falling circulation and advertising revenue have put many local newspapers under financial pressure. Berkshire already owns the Buffalo News, the Omaha World Herald and has a stake in the Washington Post. Nevertheless, Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is upbeat about the future of newspapers. [...] Continue Reading…

Windsor Genova – Fourth Estate Cooperative News Writer
Beijing, China (4E) – The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea on Sunday agreed to start negotiations for a free trade agreement later this year during their Fifth Trilateral Summit meeting in the Chinese capital. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made the announcement in a joint press conference after the meeting. Bilateral talks on the FTA between China and South Korea started early this month and are expected to last two years, according to China’s Minister of Commerce Chen Deming. The three-way FTA is projected to raise the gross domestic product (GDP) of China by up to 2.9 percent, Japan by 0.5 percent, and South Korea by 3.1 percent. The three major traders account for 90 percent of the East Asian GDP and 20 percent of the world’s [...] Continue Reading…

Sehba, Libya (IRIN) – A tenuous peace has taken hold in Libya’s southwestern city of Sebha more than a month after tribal clashes killed at least 70 people, with tensions still high between communities living here, many of whom have their own armed militias, according to local residents. “You see that place?” Adoum Abaka, a Tubu from Tayuri, a poor neighborhood of Sebha inhabited mainly by Tubu and Tuareg families, told IRIN, pointing to a nearby building on a hill with gaping holes where the walls used to be. “That is where some of us hid when Tayuri was under attack by the Awlad Sulayman [tribe]. We were fighting with Kalashnikovs. One person was killed there.” The latest clashes erupted in March between the Tubu ethnic group and the Arab Awlad Sulayman and Awlad Abu Seif tribes. The clashes are said to have begun after a man [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – Fourth Estate Cooperative Reporter
New York, N.Y., United States (4E) – United States markets started Wednesday higher as European developments continue to take center stage. Just after 9:30 a.m. on Wall Street, the Dow, coming off a 63-point loss Tuesday, was up 32 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 5 points and the NASDAQ was higher by 8. Greece failed to agree on a coalition government Tuesday, so all parties were meeting Wednesday to set up a caretaker government that will conduct new elections. The instability in the country haunts finance ministers, eurozone nations and investors worldwide that the ailing Mediterranean country will have to leave the 17 eurozone region and return to the drachma. Greece will hold fresh elections in June. In world markets, European equities were mixed in midday trading while Asian markets ended the day lower. [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – Fourth Estate Cooperative Reporter
New York, N.Y., United States (4E) – Moody’s Investor Service downgraded the debt rating of 26 Italian banks Monday amid worries about a double dip recession. The move means Moody’s now ranks Italy’s banks lower than most of their Western European peers. Italy’s banks have been struggling from the effects of a weak economy and government austerity measures. Moody’s noted that support from the European Central Bank lowered the default risk of many of the banks. The ratings agency lowered its long-term debt and deposit rating by one notch each for 10 banks, by two notches for eight banks, by three notches for six banks and by four notches for two banks. Moody’s also downgraded the short-term rating on 21 banks by one or two notches, which resulted in long-term rating downgrades. The firm maintains a negative [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – Fourth Estate Cooperative Reporter
New York City, NY, United States (4E) – While a welcome relief for consumers, the reason behind the fall is troubling. On Monday, crude oil prices slipped below $95 a barrel, a new low for 2012, on worries that Greece may be forced to abandon the euro currency. In early afternoon trading on New York’s Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for June delivery dipped $1.75 to $94.38 a barrel. Gasoline prices at the pump have also come down across the U.S., dropping almost 21 cents a gallon since last month when they hit a year high of $3.939 cents. The latest drop in crude prices should help to keep them down. Earlier concerns that propelled oil lower were mounting woes of a slowdown in the growing and gas guzzling Asian nation China Speculation Monday that ailing Greece will revert back to the drachma, leaving [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – Fourth Estate Cooperative Reporter
Midvale, Utah, United States (4E) – Ally Financial ResCap mortgage on Monday filed for prepackaged bankruptcy protection. The bank, owned by taxpayers, said the filing will allow the bank to take another step to repay the U.S. treasury. Ally’s ResCap unit operates under the GMAC Mortgage brand. At one time, it was the nation’s leading subprime lender. Problems with those home loans for risker borrowers, and the steep drop in the company’s core auto finance business, forced the Treasury to shell out some $15.8 billion in bailout funds in 2009 in an effort to rescue the ailing auto industry and bubble-bursting housing market. ResCap began as the finance unit of automaker General Motors under the GMAC name. It changed its name to Ally after the bailout. In addition to its auto finance business, Ally also operates as an online commercial [...] Continue Reading…

Bangkok, Thailand (IRIN) – A vaccine against one of the most neglected yet fatal tropical diseases is being tested for the first time in a clinical trial in India and the US. After malaria, leishmaniasis is the second largest parasitic killer, and the visceral form is the most deadly. “Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) kills 50,000 persons per year, 70 percent of them children. It can be treated but the costs are too high… at hundreds of US dollars per person,” said Dr Franco Piazza at the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), a Seattle-based NGO that developed the vaccine with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. VL , also called kala-azar or black fever, infects an estimated half million persons or more annually. It is found most commonly in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan. The leishmaniasis group of diseases is transmitted by infected sand flies, [...] Continue Reading…

Linda Young – Fourth Estate Cooperative Writer
Washington, D.C., United States (4E) – JP Morgan saw its shares fall in trading over a risky investment strategy that has so far cost the bank $2 billion, but its continued association with PetroChina could cause more trouble. Stockholders will vote on a shareholder proposal that JP Morgan divest its portfolio of PetroChina stock. Criticism of Chinese oil giant PetroChina (PTR) stems from its support of genocidal government in Sudan. PetroChina is the largest oil company in China and among the largest in the world. It is the publicly traded arm of state-owned oil and gas firm China National Petroleum Company. The communist government owns CNPC and dictates its policies. Many other institutions long ago divested their portfolios of PetroChina stock, including Fidelity and Harvard University. JP Morgan (JPM, Fortune 500) is PetroChina’s largest U.S.-based shareholder. The bank owns [...] Continue Reading…