ECONOMIC EXPANSION

U.S. Europe stocks are poised to end the week with a dark cloud, asinvestors around the fear the economic outlook.
At 8 a.m. ET, Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), Nasdaq (COMP) and S&P500 (SPX) futures were all more than 1% lower.
Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.
Global markets have been unsteady in recent weeks amid worries aboutEurope's debt crisis and the prospect of a double-dip recession become moreand more possible, one of the reasons is that OPEC cannot maintain crudeprices steady between $67 and $73 a barrel.
President Obama wants BP to set up a fund for damages from the worseningoil. Obama is due to meet company executives on Wednesday as this companybecomes more and more bogged down by its lack of capacity to solve the oilspill.
European shares dropped in morning trading. Germany's DAX fell 1.1%, theCAC 40 in France dropped 1.5% and Britain's FTSE 100 also 0.5%.
Asian markets also finished the session in negative territory. Japan'sbenchmark Nikkei index fell 1.8%, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.9%.The Shanghai Composite ended the session down 0.3%.
Dollar and commodities: Both the euro and British pound continued its dropjust over 1% on the dollar Monday, as European financial markets lookedlower. Meanwhile, the dollar was up about 0.2% against the Japanese yen.
U.S. light crude oil for July delivery fell $1.61 to $75.39 a barrel.

Labels: CAC, DAX

Worldwatch predicts that some energy companies like EXXON, will launch a hostile offer for BP...
Shares in BP fell a further 6% on Wednesday amid fears that it will cut its dividend to help pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Shares in the oil giant were trading at 384.6p by mid-afternoon. April's oil spill has sent shares in the company tumbling. Before the disaster, they were trading at 648p.

On Tuesday, BP shares lost 5% after US President Barack Obama said he would have fired chief executive Tony Hayward over remarks he made.
Mr Hayward made comments such as "I want my life back" and called the Gulf "a big ocean" in the wake of the disaster, which killed 11 people.
The sharp fall in BP's share price is bad news for UK pension funds, which
invest heavily in the firm.

Labels: EXXON.BP, OFFER