After the pharmaceutical industry got egg in its face because of the Vioxx fiasco, this new cancer study is welcome news. Also welcome news for woman everywhere and the men who care about them.

Bone drug Zometa helps fight breast cancer spread

CHICAGO (AP) -- A drug to prevent bone loss during breast cancer treatment also substantially cut the risk that the cancer would return, results that left doctors excited about a possible new way to fight the disease.

It is the first large study to affirm wider anti-cancer hopes for Zometa and other bone-building drugs called bisphosphonates. Zometa, made by Novartis AG, is used now for cancers that have already spread to the bone.

The new study involved 1,800 premenopausal women taking hormone treatments for early-stage breast cancer. Zometa cut by one-third the chances that cancer would recur -- in their bones or anywhere else.

"This is an important finding. It may well change practice," said Dr. Claudine Isaacs, director of the clinical breast cancer program at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center.

The study was led by Dr. Michael Gnant of the Medical University of Vienna and reported Saturday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

If a second, ongoing study also finds a benefit, doctors predict that Zometa will quickly be tested against other cancers that tend to spread, or metastasize, to bones, such as prostate and kidney cancer.

"Hugely important is whether this has to do with the fact that it just makes the bone hostile, somehow, to metastasis or if there is a more global anti-metastasis effect," said the oncology group's president, Dr. Nancy Davidson of Johns Hopkins University.

"Either of those would be good and would teach us a lot about what to do next."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. About 184,450 cases and 40,930 deaths from the disease are expected in the United States this year.

Standard treatments are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone-blocking drugs if the tumors are like those in the study -- helped to grow by estrogen or progesterone.

The hormone-blockers often weaken bones, so bisphosphonates like the osteoporosis pill Fosamax have become increasingly popular to treat this side effect. However, using them to treat the cancer itself is a very different approach.

Lab studies hinted it would work, and Gnant's is the first to test it in a large group of breast cancer patients.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Killian's Pub to close its doors at Torrance location By Muhammed, El-Hasan, Staff Writer

Killian's Pub and Grill in Torrance will shutter its doors tonight, ending four years of selling corned beef and beer at its current location.

The Irish pub, located at 2533 Pacific Coast Highway in Rolling Hills Plaza, failed to secure a lease renewal with its landlord, Killian's manager Tad Dexter said.

The management company that owns the restaurant hopes to reopen by August in a location about half the size of the current site, said Rob MacDonald, a consultant for the restaurant who is married to one of the owners.

"Customers can look forward to us popping up in Torrance, Redondo Beach, somewhere in the South Bay," MacDonald said. "We want a smaller, more intimate place, about 2,000 square feet. (It would be) a little easier to manage. We want to get back the nice intimate pub experience."

On Thursday afternoon, regular customer Jeff Newland nursed a cold glass of Coors Light while sitting on a wooden stool at one end of the restaurant's bar area.

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Peerless is a strong company. It's unclear how big of a blow this is.

Peerless Systems terminates asset purchase pact with Prism Software

BOSTON (Thomson Financial) - Peerless Systems Corp. said Friday it has terminated its asset purchase agreement with Prism Software Corp.

The company said various closing conditions of the deal weren't satisfied, removing Peerless from its obligation to complete the transaction.

No termination fee is payable by Peerless from the termination of the agreement.

Peerless reached an agreement in February to acquire Prism Software, a document solutions software maker.

Read the full article.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The jury's still out on this verdict.

Incomes and spending both slow in April

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first round of economic stimulus checks gave a boost to personal incomes in April but a huge question remains: Will people spend the checks quickly enough to keep the economy afloat?

The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending barely budged in April, rising a tiny 0.2 percent, and income growth was just as weak, increasing a similar 0.2 percent.

The growth in incomes, held back by four straight months of jobs losses, would have been just 0.1 percent had it not been for the first wave of economic stimulus payments that the government started sending out April 28.

The impact on incomes should be even larger in the May and June reports, reflecting the bulk of the payments. The Treasury Department reported Friday that so far 57.4 million payments have been made totaling $50.04 billion, nearly half of the $106.7 billion that will be disbursed this year to 130 million households.

The checks are the centerpiece of a $169 billion stimulus package that Congress passed at President Bush's urging in February with the aim of jump-starting the stalled economy. Analysts said whether they keep the economy out of a recession will depend on how fast people spend the money.

"It will be impressive if consumers can manage to hold on given all the headwinds they are facing," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "Nothing is going right. Jobs are down, the stock market is wobbly, home prices are plunging and gasoline prices are at record highs."

All the problems have pushed consumer confidence to recessionary levels. The Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment dropped for a fourth straight month in May, hitting a 28-year low of 59.8, down from a reading of 62.6 in April. The May level was the lowest since June 1980, when Jimmy Carter was in the White House and consumers were being battered by a recession and soaring gasoline prices.

Despite worries that consumers may end up using their stimulus checks to pay off credit card debt rather than spending the money to give the economy a boost, analysts said they believed that about two-thirds of the money will get spent this year, enough to keep the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, in positive territory.

The government on Thursday revised its estimate of first quarter GDP growth up to a rate of 0.9 percent, slightly better than the 0.6 percent original forecast. While many economists had believed that the economy would slip into negative territory during the current April-June quarter, the modest growth in consumer spending in April and hopes of better figures going forward are causing analysts to revise their estimates upward.

"So far, the economy is proving more resilient than we gave it credit for," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York, who said GDP growth could come in around 0.5 percent in the current quarter and then rebound to around 2 percent in the July-September quarter, as consumers spend their stimulus checks.

But Wyss and some other analysts cautioned that the boost in economic activity could be short-lived, only delaying a full-blown recession into early next year.

"There is considerable risk that the tax rebates will only put a Band-Aid over a large and growing wound to consumer sentiment with a rising possibility of a sharp pullback in spending later in 2008 or in early 2009," said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at Global Insight.

The 0.2 percent rise in personal incomes in April was the weakest gain since a 0.2 percent rise in January.

Private wages and salaries fell at an annual rate of $18.2 billion in April, the biggest setback in a year. Businesses have been cutting jobs for four straight months, with analysts forecasting a fifth month of job declines when the government reports next Friday on labor market conditions in May.

The 0.2 percent rise in consumer spending followed a 0.4 percent increase in March. Increases in recent months have largely reflected the big surge in energy costs and, to a lesser extent, higher food prices. Excluding inflation, consumer spending would have been flat in April.

Consumer prices, measured by an inflation gauge tied to spending, rose by 0.2 percent, down from a 0.3 percent rise in March.

The personal savings rate, the amount of spending compared to after-tax incomes, held steady at 0.7 percent in April, the same level as in February and March.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Analysts don't give Boeing much chance.

Boeing hopeful on tanker, notes appeals often fail

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - Boeing Co. hopes to win its challenge to a $35 billion U.S. aerial refueling deal that went to Northrop Grumman Corp., but notes such efforts fail more often than not, the chief executive said Thursday.

"We are hoping the GAO (Government Accountability Office) will confirm our view," CEO James McNerney said. "But we recognize that (these) protests are denied more often then they are sustained."

He made his remarks at a webcast conference for investors hosted by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

The U.S. Air Force said Feb. 29 it was skipping Boeing in favor of a team made up of Northrop Grumman Corp and Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) to start a new fleet of tankers for mid-air warplane refueling.

Boeing filed a formal protest to the GAO, saying it believed its modified 767 tanker represented a better value than the larger Airbus A330 derivitive picked by the Air Force.

The Air Force plans to buy tankers in three phases, starting with a batch of 179 aircraft valued at up to $35 billion.

GAO is due to make its recommendations to the Air Force by June 19.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like the Energizer Bunner, gas prices keep going and going and going (up).

Gas prices hit record for 22 straight days

(CNNMoney) Retail gas prices hit record highs for the 22nd day in a row, motorist group AAA's Web site showed Thursday.
The nationwide average for a gallon of regular unleaded rose eight-tenths of a cent to $3.952, marking the 23rd straight day that gas prices have increased.

The AAA survey shows gas prices are up nearly 10% from a month ago and almost 24% higher from year-ago levels.

The average price for gas has passed the $4 a gallon mark in 11 states, as well as in Washington, D.C.

The most expensive state for buying gas is Connecticut, where a gallon of regular unleaded costs on average $4.223, according to AAA. The second most expensive state is Alaska, where a gallon of gas costs $4.209.

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is one person's perspective. It's a pretty thorough piece.

Why gas is so expensive

(Salon) I can't decide whether to frame or burn the receipt from a Chevron filling station in Berkeley, Calif., that documents how much I spent to fill the tank of my 12-year-old Nissan Quest minivan on Sunday morning. At $4.09 a gallon for regular unleaded, the total came to $65.68. That's the most I've ever paid for a tank of gas, so I feel inclined to treat the paper record with respect. But a couple of weeks from now, if recent trends hold true, my unwanted milestone will be eclipsed again, and the receipt transformed into a trigger for nostalgia. Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline? Ah, those were the days.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

High oil prices: Another reason to hope for world peace.

Oil rebounds on Nigeria threat, supply concerns

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures rose back above $131 Wednesday, recovering from early losses as threats against Nigerian oil facilities led investors to at least temporarily set aside concerns about falling U.S. gas demand.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices rose to a new record over $3.94 a gallon.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $2.18 to settle at $131.03 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after spending the morning swinging between gains and losses. At its lows, oil was down nearly $3 a barrel, compounding a $3.34 drop in crude on Tuesday. It passed $135 for the first time last Thursday.

Although prices rebounded sharply Wednesday, investors are still contending with a growing belief that U.S. demand for gas is falling in response to prices that already average more than $4 in 11 states and the District of Columbia. The national average price of a gallon of regular gas rose 0.7 cent overnight to a new record of $3.944, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boeing got a boost in its PR war over a lucrative Air Force contract to build aerial refueling tankers. Northrop won the contract, but Boeing is contesting it.

The Center for Individual Freedom, a conservative political organization, is supporting Boeing based on Northrop's partnering with Europe's EADS defense firm on the project. Boeing would have based its model on a Boeing plane. The Northrop model is based on an Airbus aircraft. EADS is the parent company of Airbus.

Northrop's tanker project would be run out of the Integrated Systems headquarters in El Segundo.

Here's the website that supports Boeing's position.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Northrop issued this latest release to justify its win of a multibillion-dollar Air Force aerial refueling tanker earlier this year. Northrop beat out Boeing, which is contesting the contract award. Northrop's tanker will be based on a European aircraft model made by Airbus.

Here's Northrop's release:

WASHINGTON, May 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria. Despite this fact, the losing bidder wants the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman even though the Air Force conducted what even Boeing described as a fair, open and transparent bidding process. Here is another reason Northrop Grumman won, drawn from a list of facts included in a redacted version of a protected Air Force selection document.

Fuel Offload

In publishing its Request For Proposal (RFP) for America's next generation of aerial refueling tankers, the Air Force made clear that it was placing a priority on superior refueling capacity, even as it was looking for a more versatile aircraft. In the document in which it explained to both companies why Northrop Grumman's aircraft was superior, the Air Force concluded that Northrop Grumman was better able to pump fuel onto other aircraft -- and receive fuel from another aircraft -- than Boeing, earning a clear win in this vital evaluation category.

"Northrop Grumman provides better fuel offload at all distances from bases," the document noted. "Benefit: A single [Northrop Grumman tanker] can refuel more receivers and/or provide more fuel per receiver than" Boeing's aircraft.

"Northrop Grumman offered a superior fuel offload and receive rate ... compared to Boeing's," the document notes.

The Air Force also made clear that it found Northrop Grumman's fuel offload capability to be more efficient than Boeing's.

"The [Northrop Grumman aircraft] also provides more pounds of fuel offload per pound of fuel used compared to the [Boeing aircraft] at all ranges."

In its written summary, the Air Force said Northrop Grumman's "aerial refueling capability was compelling" to its decision. "Northrop Grumman's offer was a superior solution to the air refueling requirement, which is a key performance parameter."

When Northrop Grumman's win was announced on Feb. 29, Sue Payton, the chief acquisition officer for the Air Force, said, "Overall, Northrop Grumman did have strong areas in aero-refueling."

About the KC-45

The KC-45 Tanker aircraft will be assembled in Mobile, Ala., and the KC-45 team will employ 48,000 American workers at 230 U.S. companies in 49 states. It will be built by a world-class industrial team led by Northrop Grumman, and includes EADS North America, General Electric Aviation and Sargent Fletcher.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Convenience is the key.

Agreement may mean end of cable set-top boxes

(AP) The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable television customers for decades, is moving toward extinction.

A leading television manufacturer, Sony Electronics Inc., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Tuesday they signed an agreement that will allow viewers to rid themselves of set-top boxes, yet still receive advanced "two-way" cable services, such as pay-per-view movies.

In most cases, cable viewers also could dispose of another remote control since they could use their TV's control rather than one tied to the set-top box.

The agreement marks a significant meeting of the minds between cable companies and one of the world's dominant makers of consumer electronics. The two industries have been feuding for a decade about how best to deliver cable service to customers while allowing them to buy equipment of their own choosing.

Sony agreed to use the cable industry's technology in its sets as soon as possible but could not say when the first such televisions might be appear in stores.

The agreement is between Sony and the nation's six largest cable companies: Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and Bright House Networks. The six companies serve more than 82 percent of cable subscribers.

Cable subscribers are generally locked into renting a set-top box from their provider if they want more than the most basic cable TV service.

More than a decade ago, Congress ordered the cable industry to allow outside electronics makers to compete for the boxes. The industry responded by developing the "cable card." The cards are inserted into competing boxes, televisions or other devices and unscramble the cable signal.

The cards have been the source of frequent customer complaints and never proved popular. In addition, sets can only receive signals from their cable company, not vice versa. Subscribers were unable to enjoy "two-way" features such as video on demand, on-screen channel guides and cable company-provided digital video recorders.

Customers will still be able to attach their own devices -- like TiVo digital video recorders, according to the NCTA.

Under the new system, customers will still need to get a cable card from their provider, but the agreement means, hopefully, technical glitches will be eliminated, "two-way" services will be available and there will be no need for the clunky boxes.

The cable association said it was hopeful other electronics manufacturers will also agree to use the same technology.

The industry hopes to head off action by the Federal Communications Commission to impose a two-way standard on the industry.

"Every member of the FCC has encouraged the parties to resolve these highly technical issues in private-sector negotiations," said Kyle McSlarrow, president of NCTA. Tuesday's announcement means they have done so, he added.

The FCC declined to comment on the agreement Tuesday.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Tuesday, Music Video Games, a music-based game company focused on melding music and video games for fans of both, announced its launch.

The new company is based in El Segundo.

MvG was founded by David Warhol, president of video game studio Realtime Associates, Inc., and Vincent Bitetti, a video game publishing executive and former CEO of TDK Mediactive, which was sold to Take Two Interactive in 2004.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know I've lost mine.

May consumer confidence falls to near 16-year low

(AP) Soaring gas prices and weakening job prospects left shoppers gloomier about the economy in May, sending a key barometer of consumer sentiment to its lowest level in almost 16 years.

The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 57.2, down from a revised 62.8 in April. Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR had expected a reading of 60.

The May reading marks the fifth straight month of decline and is the lowest since the index registered 54.6 in October 1992 when the economy was coming out of a recession.

Economists closely watch sentiment readings since consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's economic activity.

"Weakening business and job conditions coupled with growing pessimism about the short-term future have further depleted consumers' confidence in the overall state of the economy," Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.

Franco said consumers' worries about inflation, fueled by increasing prices at the gas pump, are now at an "all-time high" and are likely to rise further in the months ahead. She added that based on consumers' outlook on the economy, she believes there's little likelihood of a quick turnaround.

Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wachovia Corp., agreed, saying that as "awful as these numbers" look, he doesn't believe that confidence has bottomed out yet, an ominous sign for consumer spending.

"Higher gasoline is of immediate concern," Vitner said. " A lot of the extra money is going toward gas and food." And he doesn't see consumer sentiment improving until gas prices start receding.

The Conference Board index that measures shoppers' current assessment of economic conditions declined to 74.4 in May from 81.9 in April. The index that gauges their outlook over the next six months declined to 45.7 from 50.0 in April.

The downbeat news came as investors received mixed news about the housing market. A closely tracked Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index showed that housing prices dropped at the sharpest rate in two decades during the first quarter, indicating that the housing slump continues to deepen.

The S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index fell 14.1 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the lowest since its inception in 1988. The quarterly index covers all nine U.S. Census divisions.

But the Commerce Department announced that sales of new homes rose in April for the first time in six months although the unexpected increase still left activity near the lowest level in 17 years.

Sales of new homes rose 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the agency said.

Prices edged higher on Wall Street, but were below the day's highs. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5.54, or 0.04 percent, to 12,485.17. The blue chip index had been up by about 60 points at its highs of the session.

Broader stock indicators were slightly higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.02, or 0.07 percent, to 1,376.95; the Nasdaq composite index rose 10.37, or 0.42 percent, to 2,455.04.

Investors have been uneasy about soaring gas prices and its impact on the economy and consumer spending. Gas now costs more than an average of $3.80 per gallon nationally -- peaking well north of $4 a gallon in major coastal cities -- and is expected to keep following oil higher. Higher prices for gas as well as for food are leaving shoppers with less money to spend on apparel and other non-necessities, depressing sales at mall-base apparel stores and other retailers.

Such mounting economic problems are dampening hopes among retailers and analysts that shoppers will be using their stimulus checks for anything but debt reduction and food and gas.

Analysts are also closely watching the job market, which has been softening in recent months. Job security is key to consumers' willingness to spend.

According to the Conference Board report, the percentage of consumers surveyed saying jobs are "hard to get" was virtually unchanged at 28 percent from 27.9 percent in April. Those claiming jobs are "plentiful" declined to 16.3 percent from 17.1 percent.

The outlook for the labor market remained pessimistic. The percent of consumers expecting fewer jobs in the months ahead declined moderately to 32.4 percent from 32.9 percnet, while those anticipating more jobs was virtually unchanged at 8.7 percent compared with 8.8 percent in April. The proportion of consumers expecting their incomes to increase declined to 13.4 percent from 15.5.

The Consumer Confidence report, derived from responses received through May 20 of a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The stakes are high since the toy industry is hurting from all the competition from video games.

Opening statements begin in suit involving Bratz dolls

(AP) RIVERSIDE--An attorney for El Segundo-based Mattel Inc. says a rival toy company stole the idea for the Bratz fashion doll line that has become a global darling among consumers.
Attorney John Quinn made the allegation Tuesday during his opening statement in the federal copyright infringement trial in Riverside that pits Mattel against MGA Entertainment Inc., the maker of the urban-themed Bratz dolls.

Quinn says Mattel owns the rights to the Bratz dolls because the designer created the dolls while employed at Mattel.

MGA has denied the allegations and countersued, saying Mattel changed the design of its own "My Scene" dolls to more closely resemble the Bratz line and used its leverage with retailers to stifle competition.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

El Segundo-based Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems has won a $21 million Navy contract to make radar components for the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet.

Work on the ATFLIR Radar System is expected to be completed by May 2010.

BTW, the center and aft fuselage of the Super Hornet is built by Northrop in El Segundo.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DaVita Inc., the El Segundo-based provider of kidney dialysis centers, has introduced an Internet tool designed to provide education about the different types if dialysis the company offers.

Called "Treatment Evaluator," the online tool also encourage patients to communicate with their nephrologist on treatment options to fit certain lifestyles.

You can reach the website by going to http://www.davita.com and clicking on
"Tools."

The screen walks patients through an 18-question quiz to find out which type of treatment is a potential fit based on their answers.

The online quiz asks questions about a patient's treatment preferences, home
and work responsibilities, and lifestyle choices. Treatment Evaluator then provides an
overview of three potentially compatible modalities, and how each may benefit a
patient's lifestyle.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the story that appeared in Tuesday's Breeze.

Last holidays for PCH lot By Muhammed El-Hasan, Staff Writer

The strip of land that has housed the Cottone & Sons Christmas tree lot and pumpkin patch for the past decade has been sold to a developer who plans to construct retail and office space on the Torrance property.

The Cottone seasonal business, with its pony rides and petting zoo, will have one more October and December to operate at the site before work begins, according to the real estate broker who represented the sellers of the property at Pacific Coast Highway and Hawthorne Boulevard.

"They'll get one more season of pumpkins and Christmas trees," said Stephen Lampe, broker and executive vice president at Re/Max Commercial and Investment Realty in Torrance.

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This would be a relief.

Boeing expects oil bubble to burst in global slowdown

(The Dominion Post) Aircraft maker Boeing expects the price of oil to fall back to a long-term average of between US$70 and US$80 a barrel.

Boeing marketing director Drew Magill said airlines had reduced capacity, with the United States on the brink of a recession and the need to pass on the high cost of oil to passengers.

"But that will be a short-term impact," Mr Magill said.

As the US and the global economy slowed down, demand for oil had also reduced, which should lead to lower prices.

Oil moved back up yesterday towards last week's record peak of just over US$135 a barrel which sent shock waves through the airline industry, with warnings that more airlines would collapse.

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If not years away.

Plenty of 'For Sale' signs but actual sales lagging

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Like spring flowers, the "For Sale" signs are sprouting in front yards all over the country. But anxious sellers are facing the most brutal environment in decades, with a slumping economy, falling home prices and rising mortgage foreclosures.

And even the faint promise of better days ahead might not come true, given all the headwinds the housing industry is facing at the moment.

"This is going to be another difficult spring," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "I think we are at the beginning of the end of the housing downturn, but it is going to be a long and painful end."

The devastation is certainly a far cry from the boom years from 2001 to 2005 when sales of new and existing homes were setting records for five straight years. During that time, home prices were soaring, luring thousands of investors into the market, hoping to buy homes and flip them for quick profit.

But since 2006, the country has been mired in a housing bust which, in many ways, is the worst since World War II.

Construction is expected to drop to the slowest pace since the 1940s and prices are expected to decline by the largest amount since the Great Depression.

Hardest hit are the states where sales boomed the most: California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and parts of the Northeast. In the Midwest, the problem is shrinking jobs in the auto industry, making homes hard to sell. But virtually all of the country has felt the aftershocks of the housing slump, either through weaker home sales or the massive drag housing has imposed on the overall economy.

Housing has shaved more than a full percentage point off economic growth, trimming the gross domestic product for the past two quarters to a barely discernible 0.6 percent rate and raising the threat that the country could topple into a full-blown recession.

The National Association of Realtors reported that 46 states saw sales decline in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2007. Two-thirds of 149 metropolitan areas saw prices decline during the same period, the largest percentage of cities reporting price drops in the history of the NAR survey, which goes back to 1979.

The state with the biggest sales decline was Maryland, with sales down 38.6 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2007. The drop nationwide was 22.2 percent.

The price decline nationally was 7.7 percent in the first quarter, with the biggest plunge a 29.2 percent decline in the Sacramento, Calif., area.

As the spring sales season got under way, the slump was continuing. The Realtors reported Friday that existing home sales fell 1 percent in April, the eighth drop in the past nine months, with the median home price falling 8 percent compared with a year ago, the second-biggest drop on record.

So just how much worse will things get?

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, sees some hopeful signs. Some parts of the country that have been hammered with sharp declines in sales and prices, such as San Diego, Calif., and Fort Myers, Fla., are now reporting sales increases, as buyers are being lured back into the market, looking for bargains.

"Lower prices and low interest rates are starting to generate results," Yun said, noting that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.92 percent in April, down from 6.18 percent in April 2007. That reflected an aggressive rate-cutting effort by the Federal Reserve to try to keep the country out of a recession.

Sales should also be helped in coming months, Yun predicted, by the reappearance of more mortgage products as lenders reopen the tap for certain loans. That supply had been closed following the credit crisis that hit last August, triggered by rising defaults in subprime mortgages.

Other economists are not so optimistic, noting that the Realtors' latest report showed the number of unsold single-family homes jumping to a 23-year high, reflecting, in part, a rising tide of mortgage foreclosures, which are dumping more homes on an already glutted market.

Adding to the foreclosure problem is the weak economy, which has resulted in four straight months of job layoffs, an indication to some analysts that the country has already fallen into a recession.

Rising job layoffs and higher gasoline and food prices have sent consumer confidence plunging -- not a great environment to mount a rebound in housing.

And then there is the problem of the huge overhang of unsold homes generating further declines in prices, which seem to be keeping more prospective buyers on the fence.

"Right now a lot of people are staying away because they don't want to buy an asset that might lose value right away," said Patrick Newport, an economist at Global Insight.

Newport predicted that prices, which by some measures have fallen by about 15 percent nationwide from their peak two years ago, will decline another 10 percent before bottoming out in the spring of 2009. A 25 percent fall in prices would be the biggest since home prices plunged by about one-third during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, said he believed sales will bottom out by the middle of this year and then start to move higher by the end of this year.

He said builders, trying to control inventories, will continue slashing production, with housing starts expected to drop by 39 percent this year following a 30 percent decline in 2007. That will push activity to the slowest annual pace since the end of World War II. Seiders predicted a gradual rebound in construction starting next year.

"This is stacking up as the most dramatic housing contraction in the post-World War II period," he said.

And while sales, construction and prices should all start to recover by next year, the rebound is not expected to be a rapid one. Some analysts are forecasting it will take a couple of years for housing to regain its footing.

"It is going to take some time first to restore confidence that housing is a reasonably OK investment, then to work off this inventory and then for the financial system to revive," Zandi predicted.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In today's paper.

Welcome to Fabulous Ultra Lux Salon
By Joanna Lin, Staff Writer

Posters of bouffants, poodle cuts and pin-curled waves line the walls. Classic vanities and vintage collectibles fill the room.

The window proclaims: "The higher the hair, the closer to God!!"

Though the decor of Ultra Lux Salon & Lounge might feel like a blast from the past, this Redondo Beach hair haven is anything but dated.

The vintage vibe is a nod to the hair goddesses of the 1940s and '50s, to the eras that inspired South Bay natives Deanna Serna and Tricia Delgado to open the salon six years ago.

"When it comes to fashion, it's all about history repeating itself," said Delgado, 34. "Just with a little twist."

For Ultra Lux, that twist comes in leopard print and polka dot chairs, punk rock and reggae on the stereo, and 21st century hairstyles and techniques.

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will Boeing and its supporters agree? If the shoe were on the other foot, would Northrop agree?

Pentagon Tells Bidders To Stop Battling Over Lost Contracts

(AP) WASHINGTON - Quit complaining.

That's the message from the Pentagon and Congress to defense companies that cry foul when they don't win contracts.

Resolving the protests costs the government time and money. That means it can take longer to build needed combat gear or buy critical supplies, making U.S. troops and American taxpayers the real losers.

Far more often than not, the complainers don't win anyway, according to statistics from the Government Accountability Office.

It's become a big enough problem that the House Armed Services Committee has raised the possibility of fining companies that submit "frivolous or improper" protests to the GAO.

Determining a frivolous or vindictive protest from a legitimate one is tricky business, though. In February, the Air Force selected a European-led consortium for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refuelers. Lawmakers who backed the competing bid by the Boeing Co. cheered the Chicago-based company's move to challenge the choice.

Boeing has argued the Air Force changed its method for evaluating the tanker it wanted after asking for proposals. That allowed a larger tanker offered by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., to beat Boeing's offer, the company said.

A ruling from the GAO on Boeing's protest is expected next month.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How credible is the richest man on Earth?

Buffett sees "long, deep" U.S. recession

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday.

He said the United States was "already in recession" and added: "Perhaps not in the sense that economists would define it" with two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

"But the people are already feeling the effects," said Buffett, the world's richest man. "It will be deeper and last longer than many think."

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's in today's paper.

South Bay home prices still sliding
By Muhammed El-Hasan, Staff Writer

Home prices across the South Bay continued to slide in April, with every community cited in a report released Friday posting double-digit declines.

Carson was the area's biggest year-over-year loser, with a 25.9 percent drop in median home price to $389,000, according to a report by the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors.

Manhattan Beach experienced the second worst drop, of 25.8 percent, to $1,372,500.

Read the full article.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Whoever becomes our next president, they'll probably be richer than you and me. Note that Cindy McCain has not released her 2007 tax returns.

Cindy McCain had $6 million income in 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cindy McCain has released her 2006 tax returns, showing total income of more than $6 million. The wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain paid more than $1.7 million in taxes.

McCain's campaign said she had received an extension on her 2007 tax returns and planned to make those public when they are filed.

Under a prenuptial agreement, the McCains have separate assets and file separate tax returns. John McCain made his tax returns public last month.

McCain's campaign only released the top two summary pages of Cindy McCain's 2006 return. In them, she listed itemized deductions totaling nearly $570,000. Mrs. McCain is the heiress of a large Arizona beer distributorship.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Read it for yourselves.

March driving down for 1st time since 1979: government

(AP) In a sign that Americans are curbing their driving in the face of record-high gasoline prices, data released on Friday showed highway miles driven in March fell 4.3 percent from a year earlier, the first March decline since the last major oil shock in the late 1970s.

According to the Department of Transportation, Americans drove 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than a year earlier, the first time estimated travel on public roads fell in March since 1979.

The data marks the sharpest year-on-year drop for any month in the history of the agency's reporting, which dates back to 1942.

U.S. average gasoline prices hit $3.79 a gallon over the past week, up 57 cents from a year ago, according to U.S. data.

Record-high oil prices above $135 a barrel are pushing average pump prices closer to the crucial $4 a gallon level. Pump prices in seven U.S. states, including California, Illinois and New York, already average above $4 a gallon.

Signs are mounting that U.S. consumers -- who use more oil than any other country -- are finally curbing their energy use in the face of a widening U.S. economic downturn.

The trend recalls the oil shocks of the 1970s, when oil prices doubled and Americans abandoned boxy, heavy automobiles in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient models.

Since November 2006, vehicle miles traveled fell by a cumulative 17.3 billion miles, according to data from the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, which collects the information from 4,000 automatic traffic recorders operated round-the-clock by state highway agencies.

Travel over the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend will fall for the first time since 2002, auto and travel group AAA said this month.

Some 37.87 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home for the holiday, which falls this year on May 26. That would be down 0.9 percent from 38.23 million last year, according to AAA's survey, which was conducted among more than 2,000 Americans.

Crude oil prices -- which comprise more than 70 percent of the cost of gasoline -- have jumped about 30 percent since the start of 2008, driven by worries about tight stocks of refined products in the near term and mounting global demand over the longer term. Oil has risen sixfold since 2002.

Gasoline use already has slipped about 1 percent this year compared with last year, according to government and private reports. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration said last month it expected American gasoline demand to shrink this summer for first time since 1991.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you missed it in today's paper.

Famed architect moving to El Segundo
By Muhammed El-Hasan

World-renowned architect Frank Gehry, famous for his synthesis of architecture and art in such projects as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, plans to move his firm to El Segundo, according to city officials.

Gehry will move Gehry Partners LLP from its Los Angeles headquarters to a pair of El Segundo buildings that share a property line, at 2352 Utah Ave. and 2345Alaska Ave.

The two buildings combine for about 60,000 square feet of space, enough to house Gehry's staff of 250 people, said Bill Crowe, El Segundo's assistant city manager.

"We expect him between the end of the year and early 2009," Crowe said of Gehry's move.

Read the whole story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What's next? A price hike on the air we breathe?

Prices soar for Memorial Day fixins' for barbecues

(AP) Hamburgers and hot dogs? Check. Lighter fluid? Check. Beer? Check. More money?

Americans are about to fire up their barbecues for the start of the summer cookout season, and one thing has become painfully apparent: It's going to cost a lot more than it did last year to roast a burger, or just about any other barbecue favorite, on the grill.

Food inflation is the highest in almost two decades, driven by record prices for oil, gas and mounting global demand for staples such as wheat and corn, and for proteins such as chicken. And that's reaching into Americans' backyards.

The price of an average barbecue -- with burgers, hot dogs, beer, soda, condiments, salad, paper plates and lighter fluid -- could run families about 6 percent more than last year.

That's making shoppers pause as they fill their carts for the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the barbecue season.

"I'm finding myself questioning every purchase, wondering if it's gonna get eaten or if we really need it," said Tony Caballero, an advertising and marketing consultant, as he filled his cart with paper plates at a Food Emporium in New York City. "When you do your everyday shopping, you try to cut corners. But it's a shame to have to scale down when you're trying to throw a party."

The consumer price index for food rose 4 percent last year, compared with an average 2.5 percent annual rise for the last 15 years. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its forecast for next year by half a percentage point, to a range of 4.5 to 5.5 percent.

Basic economics account for most of the increase: Bad weather has hurt crops, economic prosperity has driven up demand in developing countries, and surging fuel prices have raised transportation costs.

Economists and food scientists have argued that biofuel production is also a major factor in rising food costs, particularly corn, and that it should be scaled back. Meat and poultry executives have come out against federal ethanol mandates, which they say is driving the cost of corn higher.

Carol Tucker-Foreman, food policy expert at Consumer Federation of America, said high-fructose corn syrup can be found in just about anything you'd find at a cookout or picnic.

"The backyard barbecue is where you'll see the most impact from the government's decision to subsidize the use of food to put fuel in our cars," she said. "From the ketchup to the paper plates, these are the things that are going to cost you a lot more than they used to. And this is just the beginning. Next year, it'll be even more expensive just to stay home and make burgers."

But the debate is moot for many American families who are struggling to put gas in the car, pay the mortgage and put food on the picnic table.

This year, the price for a pack of hot dogs has climbed almost 7 percent to $4.29. A 2-liter bottle of soda and a 16-ounce bag of potato chips both jumped more than 10 percent to $1.33 and $3.89, respectively, while a package of eight hamburger buns costs $1.61, 17 percent more.

The surge in prices is forcing people to try to cut corners and find bargains where they can, such as buying store brands, which tend to cost less than name brands.

A recent study by the Food Marketing Institute found that about a third more shoppers are limiting themselves to frozen or boxed foods instead of fresh items this year, while nearly half said they bought fewer foods overall.

But 55-year-old Cherise Tilly, who lives with her mother in Cincinnati, said she still buys more expensive items like steak, ribs or chicken for grilling along with relatively cheaper meats like hamburgers and hot dogs.

"My mother keeps worrying and says we need to cut back more, but getting together with friends to eat is one of the pleasures in life," said Tilly while shopping at a suburban Cincinnati Kroger store.

Other shoppers may be more reluctant to indulge, and those paying close attention to prices in the aisles may worry they're being gouged by grocers, said National Retail Federation spokesman Scott Krugman.

"Consumers don't care why prices are increasing, they just want something to be done about it," Krugman said. "What they don't realize is how razor-thin profit margins are in terms of price increases on grocers as well."

While beef prices have been high, chicken and pork prices are expected to rise as producers are feeling the brunt of higher costs for feed and fuel.

Scott Faber, a lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which has been pushing Congress to increase ethanol research funding, said prices for meat will continue to rise in the next couple of years. Newly enacted federal ethanol mandates will drive the cost of corn higher, he said.

"We are just in the beginning of a period of significantly higher prices, and American families will continue to feel that impact as the cost for basic staples like milk, meat and eggs will grow drama

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This will further solidify Toyota's image as a "green" automaker. As always, I'll remind you that Toyota's US sales and marketing headquarters is in Torrance.

Report: Toyota building green-car battery plants

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build two plants in Japan to produce batteries for environmentally friendly gas-electric hybrid vehicles, a news report said Friday.

The joint venture that Toyota has with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the electronics company that makes Panasonic brand products, will set up the battery plants, The Nikkei business daily reported without citing its sources.

One plant will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries while another will produce lithium-ion batteries, which are planned for future ecological cars, the report said.

Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco did not have an immediate comment on the report.

Japan's top automaker, which leads the industry in gas-electric hybrids with its hit Prius, has said it will rev up hybrid sales to 1 million a year sometime after 2010.

Hybrids reduce pollution and emissions that are linked to global warming by switching between a gas engine and an electric motor to deliver better fuel efficiency than comparable standard cars. But they are still a relatively niche market.

Toyota's Prius, which has been on sale for more than a decade, recently reached cumulative sales of 1 million vehicles.

Lithium-ion batteries, now more common in laptops, produce more power and are smaller than nickel-metal hydride batteries, which are now used the Prius. Toyota has said the lithium-ion batteries may be used in plug-in hybrids, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet.

The world's other major automakers are also working on environmentally friendly cars, and the race is on to produce the best batteries to power them.

Earlier this week, Honda Motor Co., Japan's second-biggest automaker, said it will boost hybrid sales to 500,000 a year by sometime after 2010. Honda said it will introduce a new model sold solely as a hybrid next year, so the Tokyo-based company will have four hybrids in its lineup.

Nissan Motor Co., which still hasn't developed its own hybrid system for commercial sale, said it will have its original hybrid by 2010. Nissan is focusing more on electric vehicles, promising them for the U.S. and Japanese markets by 2010.

Nissan said this week its joint venture with electronics maker NEC Corp. will start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries in 2009 at a plant in Japan.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boeing's satellite business in El Segundo and Seal Beach announced Wednesday that they would lay off 750 employees. Here's a few items that were cut out of our original story because of space issues:

In an April interview, Craig Cooning said the integration of the former Hughes employees into Boeing's corporate structure was successful.

...

The layoffs and recent GPS contract loss to Lockheed come after Boeing's seemingly successful efforts to reconstitute itself as a premier satellite builder.

For example, in 2001, Boeing's reputation was hurt by the discovery of malfunctions in the solar arrays of its 702 satellites, the company's largest.

In 2005, the Department of National Intelligence stripped Boeing of part of a major spy satellite contract because of continued cost, schedule and technical problems. That cost Boeing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The setbacks were an embarrassment for Boeing, whose 1 million-square-foot El Segundo facility has built about 300 satellites, more than any other facility in the world.
Yet, Boeing seemed to put those problems behind it as it limited technical glitches and won new contracts.

Aerospace analyst Paul Nisbet said he saw no evidence that the GPS contract loss was due to technical problems. He noted that Boeing has built most GPS satellites.
"Over the years with the GPS, Lockheed had been building one-third and Boeing two-thirds, and this might just have been Lockheed's turn," Nisbet said.

Here's the original story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Notice that California was one of the two states with the biggest declines.

Gov't home price index posts largest drop in 17-year history

(AP) U.S. home prices posted their sharpest first-quarter decline since the government began tracking the data 17 years ago.

The Washington-based Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Thursday that home prices fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter compared with last year. The index also fell 1.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, the largest quarterly price drop on record.

"The large overhang of real estate inventory awaiting sale continues to force price declines in many areas, but particularly in places that had seen very sharp appreciation," Patrick Lawler, the agency's chief economist, said in a prepared statement.

Prices fell in 43 states, with California and Nevada showing the biggest declines. Home prices dropped by more than 8 percent in those states.

The government index is calculated by tracking mortgage loans of $417,000 or less that are bought or backed by the government-sponsored mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Legislation enacted in February temporarily raised the limit to as much as $729,750 in high-cost areas.

The government index focuses on less expensive properties and includes fewer houses bought with risky home loans that have gone sour over the past year.

Another reading that includes such properties and focuses on major U.S. cities, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller has shown larger declines.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bikes anyone?

Oil prices pass $135 after report of supply drop

NEW YORK (AP) -- Runaway oil prices blew past $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday and kept going, while gasoline prices persisted in their own relentless climb, rising above $3.80 a gallon. Supply worries, rising demand and a slumping dollar are conspiring to make filling up the car -- and paying for just about everything else -- a growing burden for Americans.
With gas and oil prices setting new records on a daily basis, many analysts are beginning to wonder whether anything can stop prices from rising. There are technical signals in the futures market, including price differences between near-term and longer-term contracts, that crude may soon fall. But with demand for oil growing in the developing world, and little end in sight to supply problems in producing countries such as Nigeria, few analysts are willing to call an end to crude's rally.

Oil's Wednesday rally was fed in part by a report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, which said crude inventories fell by more than 5 million barrels last week. Analysts had expected a modest increase.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $4.19 to settle at $133.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but prices rose as high as $135.04, up $6.06, in after-hours electronic trading. The settlement price marked crude's largest one-day price advance since March 26.

Investors seized on the inventory report to boost prices Wednesday, but traders interested in pushing prices higher are increasingly picking and choosing which news they wish to pay attention to, analysts say.

"Even if this report was bearish, with the momentum the way it is right now, it wouldn't matter," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

Crude prices first passed $130 overnight on concerns about demand and a weaker dollar. Analysts say crude has been boosted in recent days by especially strong demand for diesel in China, where power plants in some areas are running desperately short of coal and certain earthquake-hit regions are relying on diesel generators for power.

The dollar, meanwhile, weakened against the euro Wednesday. Investors see hard commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar and pour into the crude futures market when the greenback falls. A weak dollar also makes oil less expensive to buyers dealing in other currencies.

Many investors believe the dollar's protracted decline over the past year has been the most significant factor behind oil's rise from about $66 a barrel a year ago to today's highs.

At the pump, meanwhile, the average national price of a gallon of regular gas rose 0.7 cent overnight to a record $3.807 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are 60 cents higher than a year ago, and many forecasters believe they'll hit $4 on a national basis at some point over the next month.

"That's a fait accompli at this point," said Linda Rafield, senior oil analyst at Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Prices are already that high in many parts of the country, and the number of stations charging $4 or more rises each day. Prices are nearing $5 a gallon in parts of Alaska.

Diesel fuel rose 1.9 cents to its own record of $4.558 a gallon Wednesday. Rising prices of diesel, used to transport most consumer and industrial goods, are sending prices of food and many other goods higher.

There are signs that high prices are cutting demand for gasoline, which fell slightly over the past four weeks and has been mostly lower since January, according to EIA data. Only serious "demand destruction," a jump in supplies from Nigeria or other oil producing nations or a jump in gasoline output by U.S. refiners could stop prices from continuing to rise, Rafield said. There is little sign that demand will fall anytime soon in fast-growing China, India and the Middle East, she said.

A move by the government to shore up the dollar, or an announcement that the Federal Reserve won't cut interest rates further, could also reverse the upward momentum, Flynn said; rate cuts tend to weaken the dollar. On Wednesday, the Fed released minutes of its most recent meeting that left the impression it's not inclined to cut interest rates further.

Still, the price differences between the current, July crude oil contract and contracts for delivery of oil in later months signal a possible correction, or sharp price downturn, at some point, Rafield said. Many analysts have long argued that prices have risen well beyond levels that can be justified by supply and demand fundamentals.

"It's very difficult to call when this is going to happen, but when it happens, it's going to be quick and ugly," Flynn said.

In other Nymex trading, June gasoline futures rose 9.21 cents to settle at $3.3965 a gallon after rising to a trading record of $3.4081, and June heating oil futures rose 13.34 cents to settle at $3.9084 a gallon after setting a new trading record of $3.9187.

June natural gas futures rose 27.5 cents to settle at $11.64 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The EIA said gasoline inventories also fell and took the market by surprise, while inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose less than analysts surveyed by Platts had expected.

In London, July Brent crude rose $4.86 to settle at $132.70 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writer Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and AP Business Writer Thomas Hogue in Bangkok, Thailand, contributed to this report.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 6:20 PM