I've given up expecting the price to go down.

Gas jumps nearly 3 cents to record; oil crosses $124

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gasoline and crude oil jumped to new records Thursday, with gas rising 3 cents to an average national price of nearly $3.65 a gallon and oil crossing $124 a barrel for the first time.
At the pump, the average price of a gallon of regular gas nationwide rose 2.7 cents to a record $3.645, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices also rose, adding 0.9 cent to match a record national average of $4.251 a gallon.

Gas prices tend to lag oil futures, and with crude rising to a new record near $124 a barrel Wednesday and likely headed higher, it's widely expected the average price of gas will soon rise as high as $4. Motorists in many areas, including parts of California and Hawaii, are already paying that much, or more.

"If oil prices go the way that pundits are expecting, there's no way we'll stay under $4 a gallon," said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.

Meanwhile, light, sweet crude for June delivery rose 16 cents to reach a settlement record of $123.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday after spending much of the day in negative territory. But in after-market electronic trading, prices shot to a new trading record of $124.61. Analysts said volume was quite low, making it easy for oil to keep pushing higher.

"This appears to me to be computer-generated buying," said Linda Rafield, senior oil analyst at Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Some investors use software that buys automatically when prices rise to certain levels; Thursday's record settlement may have triggered a flurry of electronic buy orders.

"There is no fundamental news out to cause this market to move like this," Rafield said.

Bullish momentum -- and expectations that the dollar will continue to weaken against foreign currencies including the euro -- are likely to keep pushing oil to new records, he said.

Goldman Sachs analysts recently predicted prices will rise as high as $150 to $200 a barrel within two years. That forecast has driven much of oil's gains in recent days.

Analysts at Goldman and firms such as Barclays Capital believe tight global supplies and growing demand from fast-growing economies in countries such as China and India are driving oil higher. But Gheit and analysts including Tim Evans at Citi Futures Perspective argue that supply and demand fundamentals don't support such high prices.

"There is no reason why oil prices should be above $60," Gheit said, noting that domestic crude supplies are at average levels, and that refineries are cutting gasoline production as high prices cut consumers demand for fuel. "The physical supplies do not justify the price, it just doesn't make sense."

OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri on Thursday reiterated his position that oil supplies are adequate, and that there is no need for the cartel to boost production. He said several Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil projects are coming on line, but he noted that several member countries are having a hard time finding buyers for their additional supplies.

El-Badri agrees with analysts who feel speculative investment driven by the dollar's protracted decline is the real reason behind higher prices. The dollar fell against the euro Thursday, attracting investors who view commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation. Also, a weaker dollar makes oil cheaper to investors overseas.

Still, the market sometimes ignores the dollar, as it did Wednesday when oil surged to new records although the dollar advanced. Some analysts say that's a sign that many investors are buying on pure momentum -- believing prices will head higher regardless of negative data, news or dollar movements.

"There's a lot of momentum driving the oil price up," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

In other Nymex trading, June gasoline futures rose 1.96 cents to settle at a record $3.1378 a gallon after earlier rising to a trading record of $3.14, and June heating oil futures rose 6.25 cents to settle at a record $3.5098 a gallon after earlier reaching their own trading record of $3.5152. June natural gas futures fell 6.4 cents to settle at $11.263 per 1,000 cubic feet. The Energy Department said natural gas inventories rose by 65 billion cubic feet last week, but remain slightly below the 5-year average.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Buy your summer airline tickets soon or risk an additional charge.

Top 3 air carriers boost fuel charge by $20 roundtrip

NEW YORK (AP) -- The three biggest U.S. carriers said Thursday they have again raised ticket prices, this time by $20 roundtrip, to recoup rapidly rising fuel costs.
The increases by American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines affect the carriers' fuel surcharges, which now total $130 roundtrip on many flights. That means passengers on some cheap flights could be paying more in fees and taxes than for the airfare itself.

Delta Air Lines Inc. initiated the increase, which applies to most domestic routes. It is the Atlanta-based carrier's second hike in just over a week. The previous increase was quickly matched by competitors.

"This is obviously a result of the current market, and fares have to reflect the cost of doing business," spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.

Representatives for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines said the carriers matched the increase on most routes Thursday.

Airlines have been racing to raise airfares, tack on surcharges, and charge for amenities such as extra bags and legroom as they struggle to cope with soaring energy prices. Many airlines now count fuel as their biggest cost.

The price of jet fuel, like gasoline, has risen rapidly along with the price of crude. A gallon on the spot market in New York was selling for $3.57 as recently as Tuesday, according to the Energy Information Administration. That is up about 78 percent from this time last year.

At the same time, carriers are cutting back on flights to reduce costs and maintain their pricing power as the economy slows. Even so, analysts expect many large carriers to post large losses this year.

"I would say to my CEOs: fasten your seat belts, tougher times are coming," Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association trade group, said in an interview.

Rick Seaney, chief executive of airfare research site FareCompare.com, said the increases mean that fees and taxes together now cost more than the actual base fare on several short-haul flights.

"With a backdrop of a slowing economy, I continue to look for a tipping point where domestic air travelers begin to significantly push back on record high airline ticket prices. At best the jury is still out," Seaney said in an e-mail.

Delta shares fell 10 cents to $7.57. AMR shares fell 26 cents to $8.31, while UAL shares fell 28 cents to $13.54.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The reason Americans want their leaders' tax returns is to make sure they're not making decisions simply to financially benefit themselves or their families.

Cindy McCain says she'll never release her tax returns 2 hours, 24 minutes ago

(AP) Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

"You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate," Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC's "Today" on Thursday.

Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: "No."

The Arizona senator released his tax return last month, reporting he had a total income of $405,409 in 2007 and paid $84,460 in federal income taxes. He files his return separately from his wife, an heiress to a Phoenix-based beer distributing company whose fortune is in the $100 million range.

Sen. McCain is routinely is ranked among the richest lawmakers in Congress, but he and his wife have kept their finances separate throughout their marriage. A prenuptial agreement left much of the family's assets in Cindy McCain's name.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Cindy McCain's refusal to release her tax returns gives the appearance of a double standard on the part of her husband.

"What is John McCain trying to hide?" Dean said in a statement. "Throughout this campaign, he has acted like his own calls for openness and accountability apply to everyone but himself. Now he thinks he can bring that same double standard to the White House."

Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton filed joint tax returns with their spouses and publicly released those returns.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone's suffering from the economic downturn.

Toyota Feels Slowdown in U.S.

(NYT) TOKYO -- Toyota Motor said Thursday that the slowdown in the United States economy would probably cause its first annual profit drop in nine years, accelerating a shift by it and other Asian car manufacturers into emerging markets like China, Latin America and the Middle East.

The shifting emphasis toward emerging markets is part of a broader trend in the industry, and underscores the declining stature of the United States in the global economy. Both Asian carmakers and American rivals like General Motors have seen a rising portion of sales in emerging markets that were not even a factor a decade ago.

Toyota, now in a dead heat with G.M. to be the world's largest car company, said most of its recent profit growth has come in new markets like Brazil, China and Russia. It said the growth helped offset sluggish sales in the United States, traditionally Toyota's largest and most profitable market, and other mature economies like Europe and Japan.

"Our profit structure has become more geographically balanced, with growing contributions from resource-rich countries and emerging countries," Toyota's president, Katsuaki Watanabe, said in a statement.

This shift has been partly driven by the faltering prospects of the United States market. Declining American sales, along with the weakening dollar and rising material prices, prompted Toyota to forecast a 27.2 percent decline in net profit to 1.25 trillion yen, or $12.5 billion, during the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2009. Last month, Honda Motor projected an 18 percent drop in net profit this fiscal year, citing similar reasons.

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of them is journalism. Yeah!

Taxing Jobs Pay Off in the End

(Time) When it comes to keeping your brain healthy - and working at its best - doctors have long advised patients to "use it or lose it." The idea is to keep the intellectual highways humming; if circuits aren't used, they tend to deteriorate and eventually wither away, leading to dementia, and in some cases,Alzheimer's. But new research provides a twist on this familiar advice - it turns out that some people benefit more from using it than others.

Psychiatrists led by Guy Potter at Duke University conducted a study of more than 1,000 male twins, most of whom were World War II veterans. Potter collected 50-year-old data on the vets' IQ scores when they joined the Army, and then compared them to cognitive test scores the men generated after they retired from various jobs. He found that those who scored in the bottom quartile of the IQ scale when they were in their 20s, and then took on mentally challenging jobs, had the greatest gains on the cognitive tests in their 70s. "Being in a more complex job later in life helped them to develop skills they might not have had, or pushed them in ways so they were able to overcome their intellectual limitations," says Potter.

That means that those with the lowest cognitive abilities are most likely to lose it if they don't use it, and also most likely to protect themselves from dementia and other cognitive problems by keeping their brain circuits active. Not surprisingly, the jobs that proved most beneficial to these folks include the higher degree professions such as law, medicine and journalism, but any career that required multi-tasking, organizing and managerial skill also boosted cognitive abilities later in life. "Any job that requires you to keep fresh, whether it is new sales techniques or learning about new products, can keep you stimulated intellectually," says Potter. Even being self-employed can qualify, since it requires considerable managerial and organizational skills. "People who are self-employed contractors or plumbers, for example, may be doing plumbing most of the day, but they have to also do inventory, prepare bids, and schedule workers, all of which adds a level of complexity."

Read the full story.

Posted by Muhammed El-Hasan at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)