By Emily Chasan
Reuters Thursday May 11, 2006 NEW YORK - U.S. stocks tumbled on Thursday, suffering their biggest drop in almost four months, as a jump in crude oil and gold prices stoked worries about inflation, consumer spending and more interest-rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
Oil prices shot higher as outages at U.S. oil refineries triggered supply worries, a day after the Fed hinted that more interest-rate hikes might be needed to keep inflation at bay. For details, see . Gold hit a 26-year high. Interest-rate-sensitive bank and insurance stocks were among the stocks leading the sell-off, after a disappointing earnings report from the world's largest insurer, American International Group Inc. The S&P index of financial services stocks slid 1.6 percent. Comment:
"We've been living in a bit of a fantasy world here, and there's obviously going to be a readjustment from time to time and we're seeing part of that," said Cummins Catherwood, managing director of Walnut Asset Management.That's strange. According to the Bush administration, the economy couldn't be better! |
Reuters
Thu May 11, 2006 NEW YORK - U.S. crude and gasoline futures ended sharply higher on Thursday as kidnappings in Nigeria and refinery snags in the United States stoked supply worries even though inventories rose last week.
Crude for June delivery settled up $1.19 at $73.32 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. |
By Julia Kollewe
The Independent 12 May 2006 |
By Tom Coghlan in Grishk, Helmland Province
11 May 2006 Two hours' drive from the Afghan city of Kandahar, "the perfect storm" is about to break in the fields of Helmand province.
Here, in the place where British troops are to spend the next three years, a combination of factors have conspired to produce what is probably the biggest opium harvest in the history of a province that, last year, produced more than 20 per cent of the world's heroin on its own. A law and order vacuum has allowed an increasingly well-organised drugs cartel, a corrupt local government and resurgent Taliban to structure the poppy cultivation of the province as never before. That has combined with fine growing conditions this year to produce what, if these were wine producers, might be considered a memorable vintage. And, country-wide it is now clear the poppy harvest will be close to record levels again. It is a dispiriting blow for the international counter-narcotics effort as 86 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan. Comment: Given that, under Taliban rule, opium production was cut to extremely low levels, it is unlikely that the Taliban will be the ones to take advantage of the surge of opium prodcution under US proxy rule of the country. If opium production has skyrocketed as a result of the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, then it is fair to suggest this was part of the reason for the invasion and occupation. After all, it is not as if the US is any stranger to drug running. From Columbia to Afghanistan to Holland, the profits from the sale of illegal drugs constitute a large percentage of the "black budgets" of countries like the US and Israel.
|
AFP
May 12, 2006 |
Wed May 10, 2006
Reuters PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - A gunman on a motorcycle shot dead a U.S. oil executive in an apparently planned assassination in Nigeria's oil heartland on Wednesday, authorities said.
Militants who have been waging a five-month-long campaign against the oil industry said they had no hand in the killing of the executive, who worked for Texan oil services company Baker Hughes. A diplomat and oil industry source said it was more likely to be linked to a work-related dispute. "The American was shot by a man on a motorcycle. The motorcycle pulled up beside him and shot him," Samuel Agbetuyi, Rivers State Police Commissioner, told Reuters in the southern city of Port Harcourt, where the attack happened. A spokesman for Baker Hughes, which drills wells and performs other services for major oil companies, confirmed an employee was shot on his way to work on Wednesday. |
By Mohamed Ali Bile
Reuters May 12, 2006 MOGADISHU - Hundreds of terrified people fled a barrage of rockets and mortars in Mogadishu on Friday as Islamic fighters and warlord militias fought pitched battles for control of the Somali capital.
As the battle went into its sixth day, residents said at least 12 more people had died overnight and into Friday, pushing the death toll to at least 133. |
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