ECONOMIC EXPANSION

Strait of Hormuz

2012-01-19T11:38:00.000-08:00

The US Navy announced it led a rescue operation to assist the crew of an Iranian fishing vessel in distress in the Gulf of Oman, the third in 10 days in an area marked by tension between Washington and Tehran.

A Seahawk helicopter from the guided missile destroyer USS Dewey spotted an Iranian fishing boat sinking early Wednesday while two other vessels tried to tow it to safety, according to a Navy press release.
One sailor remained on board the sinking boat, called the Al Mamsoor, while two other crew members took refuge on the vessels that came to help.
The helicopter stayed overhead while the USS Dewey joined the rescue operation.
"Once we talked with their captain, it was clear that they needed food and water," said Navy Lieutenant Jason Dawson, the leader of the rescue team.

The Al Mamsoor crew had fought flooding for three days before abandoning their vessel, the Navy statement said.
The rescue team gave the crew about 150 pounds of food, water and other supplies before returning to the Dewey.
On January 7, a Navy destroyer rescued 13 Iranian fishermen who were being held hostage by Somali pirates.
The guided missile destroyer USS Kidd made the rescue after one of the kidnapped fishermen revealed in a radio communication that pirates held his vessel's crew captive.

The destroyer is one of the US warships the Iranian government has warned to stay out of the Strait of Hormuz, which is used by ships that carry about one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

On January 11, the US Navy rescued six Iranian merchant marines from a sinking cargo ship in the North Persian Gulf.
Despite Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, Washington has pledged to maintain its warships in the area. The Dewey is an aircraft carrier escort ship that Tehran has threatened with reprisals.
The Iranian government threatened to close the Strait in retaliation for economic sanctions by Western nations against Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

The Scheme

2012-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

WorldWatch chief analyst reports that once more Portugal places its bail-out plan in serious danger of not being able to carry out the austerity plan, Portugal continue to have one of the most expensive final consumer prices for the motorist at the filing station.
This attitude by the petrol companies Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa will affect Portugals austerity plan, as consumer demand will continue to drop as well as Tax revenue derived from petrol products.
This year (2012) prices have increased twice, and a announcement has been issued by the press that next week consumer prices will increase by another staggering three cents per liter.
The new elected government seems to be as arrogant as the last socialist government regarding this issue as there is no control as to the steps taken by these energy companies.

All these companies have a monopoly in price fixing as can be seen, this price fixing is not allowed by E.U. law, however Brussels nothing does to avoid such situations allowing less honest companies and governments to run free.
Portugal is in a recession that will be aggravated even further by rising prices which include, coffee, soft drinks, electricity, water and the announced increase in the price of VAT to 23%.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il

2011-12-21T11:16:00.001-08:00

Oil dropped for a fourth day in New York as the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il prompted investors to sell equities and commodities, while Europe was scheduled to discuss its latest step to control the debt crisis.

Futures fell as much as 0.9 percent as the official Korean Central News Agency said Kim had died at the age of 70. European Union finance ministers will hold a conference call today addressing a self-imposed deadline for drawing additional aid and creating new budget rules. Europe’s crude demand may drop 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from this year’s fourth quarter, the International Energy Agency forecast on Dec. 13.

“The near-term direction for the economy is downward, so it doesn’t surprise me that you see prices going down,” said Jeremy Friesen, a commodity strategist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong, who said Kim’s death was probably “net” bearish for the market. “There is still a lot of uncertainty.”

Crude for January delivery fell as much as 99 cents to $92.54 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract, which expires tomorrow, was at $92.88 as of 3:35 p.m. Singapore time. The Dec. 16 settlement of $93.53 was the lowest since Nov. 2. The more actively traded February future decreased 95 cents to $92.80. Prices are 1.4 percent higher this year after rising 15 percent in 2010.

Brent oil for February settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange declined as much as 98 cents, or 1 percent, to $102.37 a barrel. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $9.63 to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate grade for the same month. The front-month spread was a record $27.88 on Oct. 14.

Heart Attack

Kim, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, died Dec. 17 of a heart attack, state media said today. A government statement called on North Koreans to “loyally follow” his son, Kim Jong Un. South Korea’s Kospi index fell the most in five weeks, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 1.9 percent at 4:05 p.m. in Tokyo. The dollar strengthened against most counterparts, and gold extended its worst weekly loss since September.

Oil in New York has technical support around $92.80 a barrel, the lower of two leading-span lines that define an “ichimoku cloud” on the weekly technical chart, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The cloud is an area where buy orders tend to be clustered. Futures halted last week’s decline near that level.

‘Demand Picture’

Euro-area finance ministers will hold a conference call at 3:30 p.m. Brussels time to discuss 200 billion euros ($260 billion) in additional funding through the International Monetary Fund and the mechanics of a so-called fiscal compact that was negotiated at a Dec. 9 summit, according to two people familiar with the planning.

“The demand picture is starting to look weak,” said Jonathan Barratt, a managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney, who predicts New York oil may drop to $90 a barrel. “You are seeing continued news that reinforces a slowdown and that’s weighing on the price of crude.”

Europe’s crude demand may fall 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from this year’s fourth quarter, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report Dec. 13. The 27 EU member states accounted for 16 percent of global oil consumption in last year, based on BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy.

OPEC’s 30 million-barrel-a-day oil production limit may boost prices next year, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is pumping 700,000 barrels a day above the target and will have to cut output as supplies increase from Iraq and Libya, David Greely, the bank’s head of energy research in New York, said in a report yesterday. The 12-member group set a new output ceiling for the first time in three years at its Dec. 14 meeting in Vienna.

Chinese Consumption

2011-12-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

China consumed 9.06 million barrels a day of oil in 2010, making it the second-largest user of crude after the U.S., at 19.1 million barrels a day, according to WorldWatch statistics review.

Oil’s loss also followed a stronger dollar and lower U.S. stocks, Lynch said. A stronger U.S. currency reduces oil’s appeal as an alternate investment.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against six major peers including the euro and the yen, rose 1.2 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 2.1 percent.

U.S. oil inventories probably dropped for the first time in three weeks in the seven days ended Dec. 9 as refineries boosted capacity, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Supplies shrank by 2.5 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 333.6 million last week, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts polled before a weekly Energy Department report on Dec. 14.

Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said some OPEC members should reduce output to accommodate the return of shipments from Libya and increased Iraqi exports, according to a report yesterday by the state-run Mehr news agency. The report came as oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began arriving in Vienna before a Dec. 14 meeting.

Libya pumped 500,000 barrels a day in November, from a low of 45,000 barrels in the midst of the rebellion against former leader Muammar Qaddafi, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Italy Cannot Overcome Crisis

2011-11-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

Mario Monti, Italy’s prime minister designate, said he is not convinced the country can overcome the current crisis as he prepares to meet with President Giorgio Napolitano tomorrow to present his new government.
Two days of talks seeking support from political parties, unions and employers were intense but not useful.He said that all parties involved in the talks offered their contributions for possible sacrifices to obtain a positive result.
The former European Union Competition Commissioner has been under pressure to announce his new team, with the yield on Italy’s 10-year bond exceeding the 7 percent threshold today. That level had prompted Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek EU bailouts. Monti said he will conclude the process with Napolitano tomorrow.
Europe’s inability to contain a regional debt crisis that started in Greece more than two years ago led to a surge in Italian borrowing costs as investors bet on which nation may be next to need aid. Monti, an economist and former adviser to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., will try to reassure investors that Italy can cut a 1.9 trillion-euro ($2.6 trillion) debt and spur economic growth that has lagged behind the euro-region average for more than a decade.

Greek Referendum

2011-11-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Oil fell for a third day after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou pledge to hold a referendum raised the prospect of the failure of Europe’s bailout plan.
Futures dropped as much as 4.3 percent after decision to call a vote on its five-day-old bailout sent equities and the euro lower. You are seeing reduction in risk across the board because of concerns about what will happen in Europe.”
Crude oil for December delivery declined $2.71, or 2.9 percent, to $108.48 a barrel . Futures climbed 18 percent in October, the biggest gain since May 2009.
Brent oil for December settlement dropped $2.46, or 2.2 percent, to $107.10 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Papandreou’s referendum risks pushing Greece into default if voters reject the plan. An opinion poll published Oct. 29 showed most Greeks believe the accord on a new bailout package and a debt writedown is negative.
A rejection of the aid plan will increase the risk of a forced and disorderly sovereign default and raises the chance of Greece leaving the euro, WorldWatch said in a statement today.
The euro dropped as much as 1.8 percent to $1.3609, the lowest level since
Oct. 12. A weaker euro and stronger dollar reduce the appeal of raw materials as an investment.
The Greek action and the market reaction underscore the instability of the euro.
The market got overenthusiastic over the agreement last week. The party’s over and now we have to deal with the hangover.

The European Union

2011-10-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Oil fell in New York, paring its biggest weekly gain since March, as a drop in Japanese industrial output prompted traders to lock in profits from yesterday’s price surge.

Futures slid as much as 1.5 percent after Japanese factory production declined 4 percent in September. Oil rallied yesterday after data showed the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter at the fastest pace in a year and European leaders agreed on a plan to curb the region’s debt crisis.
The Japanese data is pouring some cold water of economic reality over the euphoria that erupted in the market yesterday, there’s also some profit-taking after the relief rally yesterday.
Crude for December delivery decreased as much as $1.95 to $92.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $92.60 at 1:04 p.m. London time. Yesterday, the contract advanced $3.76 to $93.96, the highest settlement since Aug. 1. Prices are 6 percent higher this week, set for the biggest gain since the period ended March 4, and have climbed 17 percent this month, the most since May 2009.
Brent oil for December settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange lost as much as $1.85, or 1.7 percent, to $110.23 a barrel, trimming this week’s gain to 1.3 percent. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $18.35 to New York crude, compared with settlements of $18.12 yesterday and a record high of $27.88 on Oct. 14.

The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate, up from 1.3 percent in the prior three months, Commerce Department data showed yesterday. Household purchases, the biggest contributor to gross domestic product, rose at a 2.4 percent pace, more than forecast by economists.
European leaders pressured bondholders into accepting 50 percent write downs on Greek debt and agreed to boost a rescue fund to 1 trillion euros ($1.4trillion) in a package intended to tame a crisis that threatens to slow the global economy and curb demand for commodities.

The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil consumer, using 19.1 million barrels a day in 2010, or 21 percent of global consumption, according to BP Plc’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy. The European Union accounted for 16 percent of the total and Japan for 5 percent.
New York crude will fall next week on concern European leaders’ plans to fight the debt crisis may provide limited relief, based on a WorldWatch News survey. Fourteen of 29 analysts and traders, or 48 percent, forecast oil will decline through Nov. 4. Six predicted a price gain and nine said there will be little change.
Brent crude oil, which has gained 17 percent this year, may slump as limited gains this week signal that its rally has almost run out of momentum.
The price of Brent has barely gained since the start of the week, this is an indication that the upward potential for Brent is virtually exhausted and a price slump can be expected once the excessive euphoria on financial markets at present starts to fade.

Except in one of Europes oldest economies, Portugal were petrol prices continue on a upward trend ignoring international crude prices.

Recession

2011-10-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Oil declined in New York, heading for a second weekly loss, as a rescue plan for Europe’s debt-laden economies seems to be faltering in particular with Greece, while a worse forecast retail sales indicated concerns that the U.S. economy is slowing.
Brent crude surged to its lowest in a week. European officials are outlining a rescue plan that may include deeper investor losses on Greek bonds, higher bank capital levels and increased firepower for bailouts and the International Monetary Fund.
The talk of recession is quieter, as a forecast Brent will average $98 a barrel in the fourth quarter, the oil market itself has grown surprisingly tight. Inventories are very low, at least in Europe, as supplies are not coming back fast enough and, despite all the talk of slowdown, demand seems to be holding up.

Crude for November delivery dropped to $86.48 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent oil for November settlement dropped to $109.40 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark future, which expires today, reached a record premium of $27.73 a barrel to U.S. crude earlier today. The more-active December contract was up $2.26 at $111.46.

Greek default

2011-10-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Oil fell in New York, after closing last week at a one-year low, on concern that Greece will default on debt payments, leading to slower economic growth and fuel consumption.
Futures slipped as much as 2.3 percent after dropping 17 percent since the end of June in the worst quarter since 2008. Reports this week may show manufacturing in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer, barely grew last month, while job growth failed to cut unemployment. European finance ministers meet today in Luxembourg to weigh the threat of a Greek default.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. canceled a crude shipment to Royal Dutch Shell Plc after a fire at Shell’s largest oil refinery.

A Greek default is becoming more and more likely amid reports the country will miss debt-reduction targets,” said JPC, a strategist at WorldWatch who forecasts Brent will average $98 a barrel in the fourth quarter. “The weaker euro and falling equity market are pulling oil prices lower.”
Crude for November delivery fell as much as $1.84 to $77.36 a barrel inelectronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $78.22 at 12:35 p.m. London time. The contract fell 3.6 percent to $79.20 on Sept. 30, the lowest close since Sept. 29, 2010. Last quarter’s decline was the biggest since the three months ended Dec. 31, 2008.

Global Recovery

2011-09-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

Oil slid on signs the global recovery is fading while European policymakers struggle to resolve the region’s debt crisis. Citigroup Inc. cut its 2011 global economic growth forecast today to 3.1 percent from 3.7 percent. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party lost weekend elections in her home state, stoking concern opposition is growing to bailouts for debt-saddled
European nations.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Lee weakened from a tropical storm to a depression after making landfall and soaking Louisiana and much of the nearby Gulf Coast. About 60 percent of oil production and 44 percent of natural gas output was halted in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
The weather system was about 95 kilometers east- southeast of Alexandria, Louisiana, moving east-northeast at 7 miles per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 10 p.m. Central Daylight Time yesterday.
Crews are resuming production in the western Gulf after inspecting equipment for damage, David Eglinton, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, based in Irving, Texas, said yesterday in an e- mail. Shell confirmed it began returning staff after evacuating as many as 858 workers.

However the debt-saddled European nation Portugal continues with inflated consumer petrol prices as today all companies involved Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa once more increased prices between 2 and 4 cents per liter.

WorldWatch chief analyst predicts that this latest incresae will further undermine the economy as taxes have increased across the board in a attempt to curtail expenses, this latest hike in petrol has no justification what so ever and is a clear sign that the government has little or no control over the oil companies and the nations economical guidelines.
This is a clear monopoly by the involved companies in price fixing, if no measures are taken this will no doubt cause social unrest

Worsening Outlook

2011-09-03T15:24:00.000-07:00

The macroeconomic data continues to indicate a deceleration of economic growth both in Europe and the US.

Crude oil for October delivery fell $1.91, or 2.2 percent, to $87.02 a barrel at 12:52 p.m. on the New York Exchange. Brent oil for October settlement dropped $1.10, or 1 percent, to $113.19 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

This underscores why we’re looking for the outlook to get more bearish a slowdown hasn’t been priced in yet, so oil should move lower.

on fears that one or more of the countries in the euro zone will default triggered a plunge in stocks last month that caused consumer confidence to sink, this will be reflected in lower fuel demand.

All this seems not to affect one of Europe’s oldest and worst economies..PORTUGAL

Portugal has one of the world’s most expensive consumer price for petrol and now they once more announced in the local media that consumer prices for petrol will once more be inflated next week by a staggering 3.5 cents per liter for regular 95 Octane prices will 1.605 € per liter.

This attitude by the petrol companies Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa will affect Portugal’s austerity plan, as consumer demand will continue to drop as well as Tax revenue derived from petrol products.
The policy shift by the U.S. and some European Nations to try and get external markets t o help lower crude prices does not apply to Portugal were consumer prices are inflated to record cost.

The new elected government seems to be as arrogant as the last socialist government regarding this issue as there is no control as to the steps taken by these energy companies.

HURRICANE IRENE

2011-08-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Portugal as one of the oldest nations in the world, continues to have one of the most expensive final consumer prices of any oil product (diesel /regular) in the world ...
Crude oil for October delivery fell to $106.52 a barrel, high prices and slowing global economic growth reduce demand for fuels ... however Portugal this very moment has one of the most expensive final consumer price for gasoline in Europe and one of the highest in the world...
This situation proves how these oil companies together with the government have no respect for the consumer...
This situation places the economy in the RED, as consumers pay more and more for energy....while in the international market prices are falling...

However consumers in Portugal continue to pay as if prices were at a all time high ...
BP,Galp and Repsol prices are today a ataggering 1.539 euro per litre for regular 95 Octane !!!
There is no justification for the inflated gasoline prices sold by Galp, BP and REPSOL and BP.!!!
These inflated oil prices have the approval of the government .. and of course the higher the oil price the more revenue for the government....Oil consumption in Portugal this year has dropped more than 11% and all tendencies indicate that it will continue!!!
These same companies are once more prepared to increase tomorrow final consumer prices.
THE REASON…
THE WEATHER IN THE US…HURRICANE IRENE..
In fact a Tropical Storm ..IRENE

Crude $90 Forecast

2011-08-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Oil will fall next week as Libyan rebels consolidate their hold on the country after deposing leader Muammar Qaddafi and begin taking steps to restore crude exports, a WorldWatch News survey showed.
$90 Forecast
Standard Chartered Plc cut its third-quarter price forecast this week on weaker-than-expected demand in the U.S. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude may average $90 a barrel in the three months ending Sept. 30 from a previous forecast of $98, according to a report dated Aug. 24 by Helen Henton, a London-based analyst.
Total products supplied, a measure of fuel consumption, has fallen 5.2 percent to 19.2 million barrels a day in the two weeks ended Aug. 19, according to an Aug. 24 report from the U.S. Energy Department.
Crude oil for October delivery increased $2.96, or 3.6 percent, to $85.37 a barrel this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures have fallen 6.6 percent this year.
The oil survey has correctly predicted the direction of futures 48 percent of the time since its start in April 2004.
WorldWatch survey of oil analysts and traders, conducted each Thursday, asks for an assessment of whether crude oil futures are likely to rise, fall or remain neutral in the coming week. The results were:
RISE 6
NEUTRAL 5
FALL 12

U.S.,RATED AAA

2011-08-09T04:38:00.000-07:00

Oil continued its declined since Thursday 05-08-2011 in New York, its longest losing streak since May, as investors bet that signs of a slowing U.S. and Europe economy indicate fuel demand will falter as these crude-consuming nations will see the demand fall .
This morning Brent Crude Oil was trading at $99.06 a barrel, WorldWatch predicts oil will average $100 a barrel this year. Prices could come back to the $90 level, if not more.

Oil is extending losses in New York after dropping below the 200-day moving average yesterday, a long-term support level at about $95 a barrel, according to data compiled by WorldWatch. A breach of technical support usually means prices will continue to fall. Front-month futures may decline to the lower Bollinger Band, around $91.11 today.

As Brent Crude Oil continues to reflect the decline in demand, there is one exception...Portugal..final consumer price for a litre of Regular 95 Octane continues a staggering 1.619 € per liter.
This speculation is done by the petrol companies Galp, Repsol, BP and Cepsa, they all practice the same prices, in the last week
of July consumer prices were increased by more than 8 cents per liter with no justification, now today they announced that the consumer price may be deceased by 2 cents per liter.
This attitude is ridiculous as Portugal faces severe economical hardships and a possible social unrest if this monopoly in price fixing is continued.

US Debt

2011-08-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Crude oil declined to a seven-week low after a gauge of U.S. manufacturing showed growth at the slowest pace in two years, a sign the economic expansion will continue faltering.
America’s debt ceiling, agreement may have helped prevent a crash of the economy in the short term, but there’s still a lot to worry about, The economy hardly grew in the first half of the year and the outlook for growth isn’t promising.
Crude for September delivery fell 81 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $94.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement price since June 29. Prices are up 20 percent over the past year.
Brent for September settlement gained 7 cents to $116.81 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract was at a $21.92 premium to New York futures, down from a record $22.63 on July 14, based on closing prices.
The initial euphoria over the debt ceiling was overdone, and the ISM report is a sobering reminder of the problems we the US faces. The S&P turned on the manufacturing numbers and oil followed.

US Debt Ceiling will raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling through 2012, cut spending by about $1 trillion and call for enactment of a law shaving another $1.5 trillion from long-term debt by 2021, or institute punishing reductions across all government areas, including Medicare and defense programs, according to congressional officials.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ crude output rose in July to the highest level since December 2008, led by gains in Saudi Arabia and Angola, according to a WorldWatch News survey. Production increased 245,000 barrels, or 0.8 percent, to average 29.565 million barrels a day, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts.

GREEK TRAGEDY

2011-07-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

As WorldWatch forecast on previous posts the crude price is speculative, both by petrol companies and less honest governments as is the case with Portugal were once more final consumer prices at the pump have become more expensive over the last week and according to the same agency next week the same companies will once more inflate consumer prices.
The companies involved in this scam are,Galp, Cepsa, BP e Repsol, last week alone these same companies increased final consumer price three days in a row, now this week they have once more increased consumer final prices at the pump by...

Galp increased regular 95 Octane by 7, 5 cents per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,619 euros per litre.
Cepsa increased regular 95 Octane by 7, 5 cent per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,619 euros per litre.
BP increased regular 95 Octane by 8 cent per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,629 euros per litre.
Repsol increased regular 95 Octane by 8 cent per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,619 euros per litre.

These companies all practice the same final price with no explanation given to the public as to why...
As mentioned in previous WorldWatch reports the recession will continue as long as these companies and governments continue to use lame excuses to inflate final consumer prices.
Demand in Portugal will fall by 18% as the country struggles to pay foreing debt.

"Madiba".

2011-07-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

Nelson Mandela is one of the world's most revered statesmen, who led the struggle to replace the apartheid regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy.

Jailed for 27 years, he emerged to become the country's first black president and to play a leading role in the drive for peace in other spheres of conflict. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

His charisma, self-deprecating sense of humour and lack of bitterness over his harsh treatment, as well as his amazing life story, partly explain his extraordinary global appeal.

1918 - Born in the Eastern Cape
1956 - Charged with high treason, but charges dropped
1962 - Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison
1964 - Charged again, sentenced to life
1990 - Freed from prison
1993 - Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994 - Elected first black president
1999 - Steps down as leader
2001 - Diagnosed with prostate cancer
2004 - Retires from public life
2005 - Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness
2007 - Forms The Elders group
2010 - Appears at closing ceremo-ny of World Cup

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADIBA (18-07-1918)

Austerity Plan

2011-07-12T11:57:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch chief analyst reports that once more Portugal places itsbail-out plan in serious danger of not being able to carry out the austerity plan, Portugal continue to have one of the most expensive final consumer prices for the motorist at the filing station, at the moment BP
and Repsol have the most expensive price per litre 1,601 for regular 95 Octane.

This attitude by the petrol companies Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa will affect Portugals austerity plan, as consumer demand will continue to drop as well as Tax revenue derived from petrol products.
This week prices have increased twice, 11-07-2011 and 12-07-2011, the policy shift by the U.S. and some European Nations to try and get external markets to help lower crude prices does not apply to Portugal were consumer prices are inflated to record cost.

The new elected government seems to be as arrogant as the last socialist government regarding this issue as there is no control as to the steps taken by these energy companies.

BP increased 5.5 cents per litre
Repsol increased5,5 cents per litre
Galp increased 5 cents per litre
Cepsa increased 5,5 cents per litre

All these companies have a monopoly in price fixing as can be seen, this price fixing is not allowed by E.U. law, however Brusels nothing does to avoid such situations allowing less honest companies and governments to run free.

Moody's Ratings

2011-07-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ratings agency Moody's once more speculated and downgraded Portugal's government debt on Tuesday, stating that the country will require a second rescue package because it cannot meet its debt reduction targets, however this is based only on Moody's speculative interests.

Moody's Investors Service cut its rating by one notch to Baa2 from Baa1 and said in a report that it was increasingly unlikely that Portugal would be able to borrow money on capital markets in 2013, as planned.

As a result, it said the country would probably require more financial aid on top of the euro 78 billion ($113 billion) bailout it received earlier this year -- with private banks taking some losses.

The Portuguese government and population said in response that it is fully committed to meeting debt reduction targets and economic reforms tied to the bailout.

Portugal has been shut out of bond markets for long-term loans since April, when its government collapsed, heightening investors' concerns about its financial future.

Moody's said the European Union's insistence on involving private sector holders of Greek debt in a second bailout for the country indicates the same would happen for Portugal.

The agency's report is a blow to Portugal as it tries to distance itself from Greece, which has had to redouble painful austerity measures because it did not meet debt reduction targets.

Moody's said Portugal faces huge challenges in reducing spending and tax evasion, achieving economic growth and supporting the banking system and did not exclude another rating cut.

"A further downgrade could be triggered by a significant slippage in the execution of the government's fiscal consolidation program, a further downward revision of the country's economic growth prospects or an increased risk that further support requires private sector participation," Moody's said in its report.

In Lisbon, Portugal's new center-right coalition government said the downgrade showed the country faced an "adverse environment" in its debt-cutting efforts and that only by sticking to its promises to severely cut costs would it reverse its financial decline.

But the Finance Ministry said in a statement that the downgrade overlooked some good news -- that more than 80 percent of votes in a general election last month went to parties that back austerity and reform, demonstrating a broad national consensus for change.

Also, the statement noted, the government last week announced a one-off supplemental tax on personal income this year to bring about a sharp reduction in debt and has decided to speed up a privatization program.

Ratings agency Moody's onced more showed they have no credibility and should be banned..

The Pyramid Scheme

2011-07-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is how the pyramid scheme is working amongst oil speculators:

Speculator #1: I buy oil from the market
Speculator #2: (he is a friend of speculator #1) I buy oil from speculator #1 at a higher price .
Speculator #1: I buy the same oil that I just sold at a higher price.
Speculators #1 and #2 contact the media (like AP) and release a bogus report about oil futures ...Oil goes up and the vicious cycle between these crooks continue to rob us blind ...
By the way the names of speculators #1, #2 are Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Consuming nations

2011-06-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Oil fell in New York on concern the economic expansion in the U.S. and in most European Nations is slowing and as the International Energy Agency said it’s prepared to release more stockpiles to stabilize prices.

Futures dropped as much as 1.5 percent before reports this week that may show U.S. consumer spending climbed at the slowest pace in almost a year and manufacturing cooled. The IEA, adviser to 28 nations, will act again if needed, Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in Beijing on June 25. Greek lawmakers will vote on a five-year austerity plan that must pass for the cash- strapped nation to secure more international aid.
Leading into the IEA’s decision to release stockpiles, we had a global economy that is slowing and we already had concerns over Greece, the IEA’s move suggests there is more urgency for lower oil prices than the market though.

Crude for August delivery fell as much as $1.34 to $89.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $90.34 at 8:43 a.m. Singapore time. Prices rose 14 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $91.16 on June 24, and are up 15 percent in the past year.
Brent oil for August delivery fell as much as $2.84, or 2.7 percent, to $102.28 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The contract dropped $2.14, or 2 percent, to $105.12 a barrel on June 24, the lowest close since Feb. 18.
Brent, the European benchmark contract, traded at a premium of $12.75 a barrel to U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures.
The Federal Reserve is unlikely to start a third round of quantitative easing, known as QE3, when a $600 billion purchase program ends this week.

The world’s biggest crude user may release oil stockpiles to drive prices lower and stimulate consumption.
Instead of QE3, we have IEA1, which is the release of strategic oil reserves, the IEA’s decision is really pushing oil prices down.
Consuming nations will release emergency oil stockpiles through the IEA for the third time in more than three decades as the war in Libya chokes global supplies, the Paris-based agency said on June 23.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve will provide 30 million barrels of the IEA release, European members will supply about 20 million and Asian nations about 10 million barrels.
It’s helping Greece, it’s helping Europe, it’s helping everyone by lowering the cost of oil imports. Except in the case of Portugal, were they continue to have one of the most expensive final consumer prices for the motorist at the filing station, at the moment BP has the most expensive price per liter 1,601 for regular 95 Octane.
This attitude by the petrol companies Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa will affect Portugals austerity plan, as consumer demand will continue to drop as well as Tax revenue derived from petrol produtcs.
It seems like there’s a policy shift by the U.S. and some European Nations to try and get external markets to help lower crude prices, except in Portugal were consumer prices are inflated to record cost.

OPEC’s failure

2011-06-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Oil rose to a one-week high in New York after OPEC failed to reach an agreement on production targets for the first time in at least 20 years at its meeting in Vienna 08-06-2011.
Futures gained 1.7 percent after Mohammad Aliabadi, the acting Iranian oil minister and OPEC president, said the group will maintain current output for now. A Gulf delegate said yesterday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was going to increase quotas.
The market is higher because OPEC failed to raise production ,we seeing the big reaction to the OPEC news because a quota increase was expected.

Crude oil for July delivery rose $1.65 to $100.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since May 31. Prices are up 40 percent in the past year.
Brent crude oil for July delivery climbed $1.07, or 0.9 percent, to end the session at $117.85 a barrel on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was the highest settlement since May 4.
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, representing OPEC’s biggest producer, said his country is ready to supply whatever the market needs.
According to WorldWatch, OPEC has sentenced its own fate, as this failure in production targets will cause a further 3% in crude demand.

Saudi Arabia, together with Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, were ready to supply more oil to the market, al- Naimi said. The four nations proposed a 1.5 million-barrel-a-day increase from the current 28.8 million. That would have meant output of 30.3 million barrels a day.
Libya, Angola, Ecuador, Algeria, Iran and Venezuela were opposed to an increase, as these Nations have serious social and economical problems they also have limited spare capacity
More oil is going to quietly come out of the Gulf, they are concerned about rising demand in the third and fourth quarters and don’t want to see the market starved and see prices rise to such a high level that they hurt economic growth.

JPMorgan analysts are also SPECULATING that oil prices will rise, this is what the Bank needs to meet its financial obligations and cover up its bad credit defecit.
The knee-jerk reaction to the OPEC news is probably a little overdone, it does show that there’s dissension among the members. We’re trading more on the political implications of the meeting than any changes in physical oil supply.

OPEC’s failure to reach a decision on targets shows Iran has increased its stature within the group, according to Petromatrix GmbH. Iran has replaced Saudi Arabia as the most influential member.
The 11 members with quotas, all except Iraq, produced 26.22 million barrels a day last month, 1.375 million above their target, according to WorldWatch News estimates.

OPEC has been operating well above their allocation levels for some time, over 1.3 million barrels a day above, even with Libya production off the market, the allocation levels have had little connection to actual production levels for some time.

Oil in New York has traded between $95.02 and $104.60 since May 9..

Brent oil

2011-05-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

Oil headed for a weekly gain in New York on speculation that the global economic recovery will sustain demand for fuel.

Crude rose as much as 0.8 percent after Group of Eight leaders said the world economy is gaining strength and as a weakening dollar boosted the appeal of commodities. Futures narrowed their gains after a report showed European confidence in the economy weakened for a third straight month in May. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may raise output quotas to meet global demand, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

High commodity prices are starting to take their toll on growth, Oil demand data is weak, in particular for gasoline demand.

Crude for July delivery was at $100.48 a barrel, up 25 cents, at 12:35 p.m. London time, after rising as much as 80 cents to $101.03. Futures yesterday fell $1.09 to $100.23, the lowest settlement since May 24. Prices are up 1 percent this week and 10 percent this year.

Brent oil for July settlement was up 8 cents at $115.13 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract yesterday rose 12 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $115.05, the highest closing price since May 10.

Osama bin Laden

2011-05-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

Oil settled lower Monday after the dollar rose in afternoon trading.

Benchmark crude for June delivery fell 41 cents to settle at $113.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude lost 77 cents to settle at $125.12 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil dropped below $111 a barrel early Monday, after President Barack Obama announced Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan. The dollar rose at the same time. Oil is priced in dollars, so as the dollar strengthens oil becomes less attractive to investors with foreign currency, and the price falls.
Later in the day, the dollar weakened and oil recovered some ground.

Bin Laden's death represents a tipping point for global oil and commodities prices, and the exit of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi could remove further uncertainty about oil supplies in the region.

The main concerns are the lingering issues of sovereign debt such as Greece, Irland and Portugal and the economic recovery, WorldWatch warns that if the consumer petrol pump prices in Portugal continues to rise, as it is already one of the most expensive in the world, then economic recovery will be a dream.
Gas pump prices are still climbing. The national average for a liter of regular 95 Octane is a staggering 1.641€, the most expensive ever.

International Monetary Fund

2011-05-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

March unemployment in Portugal ranked the 10th highest among EU member countries at 11.1%, the same as the previous month, but higher than the 10.7% registered one year earlier
Portugal has one of the most expensive final consumer price for petrol (gas-US) in the world.
The prices are inflated on a weekly basis by the four companies present.Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa.

Galp Energy Regular 95 Octane (1,641) per litre.
Cepsa Regular 95 Octane (1,641) per litre.
BP Regular 95 Octane (1,641) per litre.
Repsol Regular 95 Octane (1,641) per litre.

Petrol has reached the most expensive price per litre ever in Portugal, passing the historic mark of July 2008, 1,525 eurosper litre...back then the crude price was $147 per barril not at todsaysprice of $91 per barril...
This type of price fixing is not allowed by EEC members but corruption is like a spiders web, reaches all governing bodies.
These prices are higher than the ones practiced in 2008, this and the defice of Portugal will sink even further the consumer spending, demand for petrol will have a decline in the first quarter of 2011 of 24%, according to chief analyst WorldWatch Portugal will enter a recession with possible social unrest caused by the increase in fuel, energy,medical care, education, unemployment (above 11.1%) and the reduction of public servants wages by a Further 5%.

Bank of China

2011-04-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

China raised interest rates for the sixth time in less than a year as Asian nations step up efforts to damp inflation stoked by surging commodity prices, and the central bank signaled that it would do more.
The Bank of China increased the benchmark one-day bond repurchase rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.75 percent, China joins Thailand in tightening monetary policy this month after economic growth and oil at more than $100 a barrel helped drive inflation to a seven-month high. Interest rates are on a rising trend and the central bank still needs to bring
borrowing costs to “normal” levels as the economy is expanding,

Inflation is likely to further accelerate until the middle of this year in China, that means pressure on the central bank to keep raising rates will continue.
Consumer prices advanced 3.14 percent in March from a year earlier, the fastest pace since August last year. Core prices, which exclude fresh food and fuel, rose 1.62 percent, accelerating from a 1.45 percent pace in February. The central bank uses the core index to guide policy and aims to keep it below 3 percent.

The central bank raised rates by a quarter point each in July, August, December, January and March. Counterparts from India to South Korea also boosted borrowing costs last month, while China has lifted reserve ratios and increased its deposit and one-year lending rates this month.

If crude prices are not controlled then a slowing of most Asian economies is certain..

OPEC MEETING

2011-04-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

The International Energy Agency maintained its outlook for global oil demand in 2011, while warning that prices above $100 a barrel are hurting the global economy, including the US and Asian economies. Worldwide oil consumption will not increase by 1.4 million barrels a day, or 1.6 percent, this year as expected due to the inflated prices, the Paris-based adviser said today in its monthly Oil Market Report. Preliminary data “already show signs of oil demand slowdown” and global supplies are starting to look “thin” as the Libyan conflict strains spare production capacity held by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Crude futures climbed above $110 a barrel in New York for the first time in 30 months on April 7 as forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi launched strikes on the country’s oilfields. Oil traded around $109 today. Yesterday the International Monetary Fund lowered its 2011 forecast for U.S. growth, citing the strain from fuel costs, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said there are “nascent signs of oil demand destruction.” The U.S., the world’s largest economy and biggest consumer of crude, will expand 2.3 percent this year, down from the 3 percent projected in January, the IMF said. The IEA reported that preliminary January and February data suggest that persistently high oil prices have already started to dent demand growth. Societe Generale SA said yesterday that growth in U.S. demand “faded to zero” in March from 600,000 barrels a day in January. OPEC, responsible for about 40 percent of global oil supplies, has about an “effective” spare capacity of about 3.91 million barrels a day, the IEA estimated. This level “begins to resemble the thin flexibility margin” that helped drive the rally in prices during the last decade. The 11 members of the producer group bound by quotas pumped 26.51 million barrels a day last month, the lowest since May 2010, following supply losses arising from armed conflict in Libya, the agency said. Iraq is exempt from the quota system. All 12 members meet in Qatar next Monday 18-04-2011to decide on additional sales of crude to reduce their official selling prices.

Portugal Seeks EU Bailout

2011-04-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

Portugal has asked the European Union for a bailout after a domestic political crisis helped push borrowing costs to record levels, making it the third euro region country to seek a rescue. Socrates, who is presiding over a caretaker government with limited powers until June 5 elections, didn’t give details on the kind of package that Portugal needs. Portuguese bond yields have surged since Socrates offered to resign on March 23 following a parliamentary rejection of proposed budget cuts. His government has insisted for the past year that the country didn’t need help to meet its commitments and has engaged in the deepest spending squeeze in three decades to narrow the nation's deficit. That didn’t stop the yield on Portugal’s 10-year government bond rising to a euro-era high of 8.804 percent today. Portuguese government bonds due March 2012 were sold today at an average yield of 5.902 percent. That’s more than Germany pays for 30-year bonds. The premium that investors demand to hold Portuguese debt over German bunds reached a euro-era record of 544 basis points yesterday. Swift Processing “The President of the European Commission assured that this request will be processed in the swiftest possible manner, according to the rules applicable,” the European Commission said in a statement. “They’ve been able to raise a bit of money, but it’s still at rates that are clearly unsustainable,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief European Economist Erik Nielsen said in an interview from London on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday” with Tom Keene today. Portugal is the latest country to seek an EU-led bailout after Greece sparked a sovereign debt crisis that threatened to splinter the euro region a year ago and engulfed Ireland in November. The International Monetary Fund contributed to both. Portugal has been trying to avoid requesting aid for the first time since 1983, when it received external help from the Washington-based IMF. Its credit rating was nevertheless cut by Moody’s Investors Service for the second time in three weeks yesterday, taking it to Baa1. That’s the same level as Ireland, Russia, Mexico and Thailand. Portugal has struggled to convince investors it can avoid a bailout partly because its economy has barely grown in the past decade. It has expanded at an average annual rate of less than 1 percent in the period, ranking among Europe’s weakest growth rates. Unemployment rose to 11.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the highest since at least 1998, as the economy contracted for the first time in a year. Portugal reported a budget deficit last week equal to 8.6 percent of the 2010 gross domestic product, higher than the 7.3 percent the government had previously forecast.

OPEC MEETING

2011-04-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

OPEC ministers will meet on Wednesday in Qatar to prevented a crash of most crude producing economies by agreeing to increase existing output targets due to the Libya conflict. The decision finally reflected concern for the world economy and a belief production curbs so far have begun to take away some of the over-supply from oil markets. Barack Obama, president of the world's biggest energy consumer the United States, called Saudi King Abdullah last week. The White House did not disclose the contents of the call, but analysts said the timing was significant. They predicted leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia would not want to be seen to be destabilizing the world economy . The International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises consumer countries, in a report on Friday said the OPEC supply needs urgently to increase production or the world recessing will be aggravated, crude demand will fall more than 7% this will cause a OPEC "CRASH" from which the, cartell will never recover.

Portuguese Government

2011-03-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

The Socialist Portuguese Government fell last week as it failled to passover to the public the measures taken to reduce public spending. In fact what the politicians overlooked is the fact that the population of Portugal face a difficult situation caused by the Bankers and these same politicians. Unemployment well over the 11% Health care one of the worst and most expensive in Europe Education one of the worst in Europe Energy prices are one of the most expensive in the world (petrol, electricity, water, gas) Corruption according to local media is a daily happening Price fixing between companies for consumer goods and energy. The example of price fixing between energy companies happens on a weekly basis without no reason, the example shown by WorldWatch is the final consumer price motorists pay at the petrol pump, consumer prices go up everyweek, Last week petrol prices dropped in some cases by 2 cents per litre, only to increase this week by 2,5 cents in all companies working in Portugal, Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa. All these companies practice price fixing... This alone will further sink Portugals economy deeper into recession as the population have no money to support any growth. Petrol consumption will decline by 13% this year alone…

The Socrates Affair.

2011-03-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

Portuguese bonds fell after Prime Minister Jose Socrates raised the specter of needing a bailout and Moody’s Investors Service cut the country’s debt rating.
The yield on 10-year debt rose 3 basis points to 7.44 percent and the spread, a measure of risk, widened 2 basis points to 429 more than comparable German bunds.
Opposition lawmakers’ resistance to additional budget cuts announced last week to meet deficit targets threatens a “political crisis,” Socrates said late yesterday in Lisbon. “The consequence of a political crisis is the worsening of the financing risks of our economy and would lead Portugal to
request external intervention.”
Portugal is fighting to avoid following Greece and Ireland in seeking a rescue. Socrates is raising taxes and implementing the nation’s deepest spending cuts in more than three decades, aiming to convince investors it can narrow its pay its bills on its own.

Portugal’s credit rating was cut two steps by Moody’s Investors Service yesterday to A3, four steps from so-called junk status, with the outlook on the grade “negative.” The rating company cited Portugal’s “subdued growth prospects” and “implementation risks for the government’s ambitious fiscal consolidation targets.”

Socrates became prime minister in 2005 and his Socialist Party won re-election in 2009 without a majority in parliament. Socrates is a power freek and uses all arguments to justify corruption in all spheres of government. One example of just how bad Socrates realy is ...this week the Socrates government reduced the sales tax from 23% to 6% on all activity that involves GOLF !!! on the other hand wants to increase some basic food items from 6% to 23%.The Social Democrats agreed in October to let the government’s 2011 budget proposal pass in parliament by abstaining.

The Portuguese debt agency plans to sell today as much as 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of 12-month bills. Borrowing costs increased at a March 9 auction of 1 billion euros of two-year bonds, which were sold at a yield of 5.993 percent, up from 4.086 percent at a previous auction of the same-maturity debt on Sept. 8.

Portugal intends to sell as much as 20 billion euros of bonds this year to finance its budget and cover the cost of maturing debt. Portugal faced bond redemptions next month and in June totalling about 9 billion euros. It faces bill maturities in March, July, August, September, October and November.
Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos on March 11 presented additional deficit-cutting measures equal to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product over the three years through 2013, including a reduction in pensions of more than 1,500 euros a month and further cuts in tax benefits.

The additional measures were presented hours before European Union leaders agreed to allow the region’s temporary bailout fund to tap the entire 440 billion euros of lending capacity and to enable the rescue fund to buy bonds directly at issuance from debt-swamped governments.

The Portuguese government is already trimming the wage bill by 5 percent for public-sector workers earning more than 1,500 euros a month, freezing hiring and raising value-added sales tax by 2 percentage points to 23 percent to help narrow a deficit that amounted to 9.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, the fourth-biggest in the euro region after Ireland, Greece and Spain.
Portugal will report a 2010 budget deficit equivalent to 7 percent of GDP or less than 7 percent, narrower than the 7.3 percent gap the government had forecast,Socrates said on Jan. 28. The government has set a target for a budget deficit of 4.6 percent of GDP in 2011, and aims to reach the EU limit of 3 percent in 2012.

The Bank of Portugal on Jan. 11 said GDP will shrink 1.3 percent in 2011 as consumer demand drops and the government cuts spending. GDP contracted 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2010, the first quarterly contraction in a year. Portugal’s unemployment rose to 11.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the highest since at least 1998.

Breaking Pictures: Destruction in Japan

2011-03-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

A JAPANESE man who was swept 15 kilometres out to sea by Japan's deadly tsunami was plucked to safety on Sunday after being spotted clinging to a piece of wreckage, officials said.

A Maritime Self-Defence Force destroyer rescued 60-year-old Hiromitsu Shinkawa after discovering him floating on a piece of roof in waters off Fukushima Prefecture, two days after the disaster struck.

The man, from the city of Minamisoma which has been virtually obliterated, was swept out along with his house after the massive tsunami tore into Japan's north-east following a 8.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday.

He is conscious and in 'good condition' after his rescue which took place around 12:40 pm (0340 GMT, 11.40am Singapore time), ministry officials said, adding that he was transported to hospital by helicopter.

'I ran away after learning that the tsunami was coming,' Shinkawa told rescuers according to Jiji Press.

'But I turned back to pick up something at home, when I was washed away. I was rescued while I was hanging to the roof from my house.' The government has said that at least 1,000 people are believed to have lost their lives in the disaster, and police estimate more than 215,000 people are huddled in emergency shelters...WorldWatch

New Companu Logos.

2011-03-05T12:21:00.000-08:00

THE NEW COMPANY LOGOS FOR SOME OF PORTUGALS MOST HATED COMPANIES...
GUESS WHY...

Libyan crisis

2011-02-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Saudi Arabia has raised oil output about eight percent to above nine million barrels per day (bpd) to make up for a near halt in Libyan exports, an industry source said, helping prices fall further from the highest since 2008.

Some European oil firms said they were looking to buy more crude from Iran and the West’s energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, said on Friday there was no need for an immediate strategic stock release.

The Saudi move follows reassurances from Riyadh earlier in the week that it was prepared to act to prevent shortages as a result of the rebellion in Libya that has sharply reduced the fellow OPEC producer’s 1.3 million bpd of exports.

“We have started producing over 9 million barrels per day. We have a lot of production capacity,” the industry source familiar with Saudi production told Reuters. That would be up more than 700,000 bpd from January.

Top exporter Saudi Arabia is the only country able to pump large amounts of extra oil at short notice. It sometimes steps in unilaterally to meet shortages or when it feels prices have risen to levels that may threaten economic growth or oil demand.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has resisted calls for a formal increase in output and says it does not plan to meet until June.

Iran’s deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Ghalebani told the semi-official Mehr news agency he saw no need for an emergency OPEC meeting and that Iran would continue to comply with OPEC policy on quotas.

“There is no shortage of oil in the global crude market stemming from political turmoil in Libya and other North African countries that requires an increase of Iran’s oil exports,” Ghalebani told Mehr.

Brent oil prices jumped close to $120 a barrel on Thursday, the highest since August 2008.

News of Saudi Arabia’s higher output came as disruption to Libyan supplies worsened. Libya is the world’s 12th-largest oil exporter and a source of high-quality crude oil, most of which flows to Europe.

Libya’s crude exports have almost halted because of reduced production, a lack of staff at ports and security concerns, industry sources told Reuters earlier on Friday.

Other oil producers may also see increased demand as a result of the Libyan crisis.

Italy’s third-largest oil refiner, Saras, is looking to Russia, Iran and other Caspian countries to replace crude oil shipments from Libya, an executive said on Friday.

The International Energy Agency, which represents consumer countries, has said between 500,000 bpd and 750,000 bpd of crude, less than 1 percent of global daily consumption, had been removed “at present” from the market.

European oil companies have not taken up Saudi Arabia’s offer of more supplies yet, industry sources have said, with some saying Saudi crude would not be a suitable substitute for Libyan oil at their refineries.

In addition, they are not in need of extra supplies for now. The IEA said on Friday European refiners threatened by a shortfall had covered their needs well into March

Poor Economies

2011-02-21T15:02:00.000-08:00

One of the most expensive final consumer prices for petrol is in one of Europe’s oldest and most poor economies ...Portugal...
Filling a car with Regular 95 Octane is now a staggering 1,56€ per liter, until the start of the middle east unrest there was no need for the consumer petrol price to be inflated 20% above the real crude market price.
Portugal is in a recession that will be aggravated even further by rising prices which include, coffee, soft drinks, electricity, water and the announced 10% increase in the price of bread, not to mention that the petrol companies Galp.BP, Repsol and Cepsa inflate prices in a weekly basis according to the monopoly of the government and these same companies.
Petrol prices in Portugal are the most expensive ever, in a country were the unemployment passes the 11%, education is one of the worst in Europe, health care appalling, if this continues civil unrest will no doubt happen.

Dubai’s benchmark

2011-02-21T14:15:00.000-08:00

Middle East shares continue to slump, sending Dubai’s benchmark stock index down the most this month, on concern political unrest in the region may spread and also the fact that OPEC have failed to control crude prices in the $85 per barril range,allowing speculation to once more affect the market.
Emaar Properties PJSC, builder of the world’s tallest skyscraper, dropped 4.7 percent. Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest Shariah-compliant lender, fell the most since November.
The DFM General Index retreated 3.7 percent, the most since Jan. 30, to 1,536.45 at the 2
p.m. close in Dubai. Kuwait’s gauge tumbled 2.5 percent, led by Mobile Telecommunications Co. as the company’s board rejected all purchase offer for its 25 percent stake in Zain Saudi Arabia.

Arab governments are cracking down on pro-democracy activists as uprisings that toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt spread to Libya, Algeria, Yemen and Bahrain. Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz, a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, said on Feb. 17 that the kingdom may see protests unless King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz introduces reforms, according to BBC Arabic TV.
The spread of the geo-political tension into Bahrain is causing investors to be risk averse,the risk of spreading is dependent on each country’s situation. If you have a country with high inflation, an autocratic regime, high unemployment and a big percentage of the population that is below the poverty level and young, then the risk is high.

Bahraini protesters were considering the government’s offer of talks to resolve a conflict now in its seventh day as a Libyan opposition group warned of a “bloodbath” at the hands of security forces seeking to crack down on calls for political change sparked by Egypt and Tunisia.

Bahrain’s credit default swaps climbed 17 basis points to 304, the highest since July 2009 on Feb. 18, according to CMA prices in London. The cost of protecting Saudi Arabian debt against default for five years soared 12 basis points to 138, also the highest in 19 months. Swaps on Saudi Arabia are used as a measure of confidence in the country although they reference
no debt. The contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements.

WorldWatch

2011-02-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

WorldWatch chief analyst has informed Reuters that Galp Energia , Portugals main oil company with parterships in Brasils Tupi field has declared that its profits for 2010 reached the 306 milion euros.
These soaring profit margins are based exclusively on the weekly consumer price hikes that the average motorist have been paying since 2008 and are continuing in 2011, Portugal has one of the hieghest consumer prices for oil (gas-USA) in the world.
This year alone profit margin has increased by 16% compared with same time last year, once more as a result of the constant consumer price hike.
The company C.E.O. Ferreira de Oliveira has once more tried to cover up the real reason why the company keeps scoring ever bigger profits at the expence of the motorist.
Weekly consumer hikes are practiced by all involved oil companies with what motorists see as price fixing as all paractice the same inflated price.

Chinas Inflation Pace

2011-02-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

China’s central bank will increase interest rates further in coming months as the three moves since mid-October leave household wealth being eroded by accelerating inflation, mainly due to the international crude prices and the OPEC failure to control them.

The People’s Bank of China yesterday raised the one-year lending rate by a quarter point to 6.09 percent and the one-year deposit rate an equivalent amount to 3.2 percent. The deposit rate remains almost 2 percentage points less than the pace of consumer-price gains, giving savers an incentive to buy goods and assets.

Consumer prices rose 5.3 percent in January

Middle-East oil exporters..

2011-02-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

As protests continue to rock Egypt, attention is turning to what impact the violence and speculation may have on oil shipments and supplies in the broader Middle East.
Egypt is not an oil exporter, and only about 1.8 million barrels a day move through the Suez Canal, which it controls. That's just 2% of the world's oil supply.
Another two million barrels a day can go through the Sumed pipeline, which also runs through Egypt, connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The pipeline is used by ships too big to pass through the Suez.
So far, both the pipeline and the canal are operating. But traders fear workers may not be able to get to their jobs due to the violence, which would disrupt supplies.
That would be a pain for oil refiners, and prices would probably rise as they are doing due to speculation. But the oil wouldn't be lost. It could ultimately go around Africa. Analysts say there are more than enough inventories to cover a brief shortage while the crude was in route.
What really has traders nervous -- and is probably the main culprit behind the oil price spikes Friday and Monday -- is that the revolt in Egypt will spread to other Middle Eastern countries.

The Middle East produces over 20 million barrels of oil day, nearly a quarter of the world's supply.
Most of this crude -- over 7 million barrels a day -- is exported from Saudi Arabia.
Most Saudi oil loaded at two massive tanker terminals on the Persian Gulf-- Ras Tanura and Ras al-Ju'aymah.
Also, a pipeline runs across the country to the Red Sea. That's used more as a back up in case of trouble in the Gulf and seldom operates at full capacity.
Most Saudi exports are bound for Asia. Only about 1 million barrels a day come to the United States, about 9% of the country's total imports, according to the Energy Information Agency.
In fact, 75% of the oil that leaves the Persian Gulf via tanker ends up in Asia --mostly Japan, South Korea and China.
Other big Middle East producers include Iran, which exports about 2.4 million barrels per day, mostly from its tanker facility on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.
Kuwait exports a similar amount, as does the United Arab Emirates, both by ship.
Iraq brings up the rear in terms of big Gulf exporters. Most of that country's 1.8 million barrels of crude leave on tankers from the Basra Oil Terminal in southern Iraq on the Persian Gulf.
Iraq also operates a pipeline that runs from the northern city of Kirkurk, across Turkey, terminating at the Turkish Mediterranean city of Ceyhan.
The fear isn't so much ideological as it is logistical. A revolution in any of these countries wouldn't permanently cut off the flow of oil. Almost any incoming government, be it socialist, capitalist or Islamist, is going to want oil revenue.
The concern is more that workers won't be able to get to their jobs for an extended period of time if social unrest breaks out.
According to WorldWatch the Gulf states are much richer than Egypt, and are thus able to offer more jobs and benefits to keep their citizens happy. Plus, the oil facilities are well guarded, away from population centers, and don't need many workers to operate.
The market reaction to this is probably speculation by traders, Saudi Aramco is not going to shut down because of demonstrations. Plus, there are no signs that unrest like Egypt's is Spreading to the Gulf's big oil exporting states.
SPECULATION IS THE CAUSE…

Rambus - Possible TAKEOVER is underway..

2011-01-28T03:31:00.000-08:00

The real facts :

- 1.3 billion in revenues booked over a 5 year period. this equates to approximately 260 million in revenues/yr , 65 million/qtr in revenues.
- Q1 revenues would be 65-66 million for the qtr. since expenses will be betwwen 56-61 million for the qtr.
- Rambus earnings per share will be around the 4-6 cent range.
- If Rambus gets everyone licensed and hits their 500 million a year revenues target for semis, Rambus will only earn approx 2 - 2.25 dollars a share. put a 15 to 20 multiple on that and Rambus' pps could be 30-40.
- Cash equivalents, and marketable securities were at $512 million, an increase of $27 million from the previous quarter and an increase of $52 million year over year.
- Lot of rumors that Rambus could be supplier of high techonolgy to Apple too.

All of this make me think , that Rambus is clearly a takeover candidate from now on........... The stock is cheap basead on the fundamentals..... Samsung, Nvidia, Intel, who knows.......

Middle East’s oil rich economies

2011-01-27T22:28:00.000-08:00

Some of the biggest customers of OPEC may continue to wallow in recession into 2010, most of them are in Europe, such as Portugal were the petrol companies Galp, Repsol, BP, Cepsa including the very unpopular government increase final consumer prices twice a week, sending this country into a ever deeper recession as demand for petrol will fall this year alone by 9%,on the other hand the oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf are again luring foreign investment and looking for places to park their own wealth.

Crude prices that have stabilized above $87 a barrel mean the Middle East’s oil-rich economies are likely to pull out of the global financial crisis sooner than the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world’s biggest oil exporter, is attracting renewed interest from investors including leveraged-buyout firm KKR & Co. Qatar and Abu Dhabi have returned to international capital markets.

Crude oil traded at $85.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:33 a.m. in Singapore Prices will remain near $88 for the rest of this year and top $84 next year, according to the median forecast of analysts surveyed by WorldWatch.

While that’s still less than half the record $147.27 a barrel reached last July 2008, savings built up during the boom from 2003 to 2010 are providing a cushion for most of the Gulf’s petroleum producers to get them through the worst recession since World War II.

Saudi Arabia’s economy will shrink 0.9 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund’s January forecast, while the United Arab Emirates is projected to decline 0.6 percent and Kuwait 1.1 percent. By comparison, the U.S. may continue to contract 1.8 percent, the European Union 2-2 percent and Japan 3.2 percent.

If crude prices remain below $85 the demand will most likely stabilize and the Gulf oil states can resume expanding, with Saudi Arabia growing 2.9 percent and Kuwait 2.4 percent, however if prices go beyond $85 then world crude demand will fall 9% this year alone.

China growth

2011-01-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

Crude oil fell the most in nine weeks on concern China is going to raise interest rates to combat inflation, slowing economic growth and demand for energy.

Oil dropped as much as 3.2 percent after China said inflation was 4.6 percent in December and that the economy of the world’s biggest energy-consuming country grew 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Prices also declined after the Energy Department said that U.S. crude supplies rose for the first time in seven weeks.

Worries about what actions China will take to slow the economy are sending the market lower. Any Chinese move will lower demand growth.”

Crude oil for February delivery fell $2.19, or 2.4 percent, to $88.67 a barrel at 12:39 p.m. on the NY Mercantile Exchange. Futures dropped as much as $2.86 to $88, the biggest decline since Nov. 12. Oil is up 14 percent from a year ago.

February futures expire today. The more active March contract slipped $2.11, or 2.3 percent, to $89.70.

CRUDE PRICES.

2011-01-18T13:03:00.000-08:00

Portugal has one of the most expensive final consumer price for petrol (gas-US) in the world.

The prices are inflated on a weekly basis by the four companies present.Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa.

Galp Energy increased this week diesel by 3 cents (1,348), Regular 95
Octane by 2 cents (1,533)...per litre.
Cepsa increased this week diesel by 1.8 cents (1,329), Regular 95 Octane
by 1.7 cents (1,522)...per litre.
BP increased this week diesel by 1 cents (1,329), Regular 95 Octane by 0.4
cents (1,529)...per litre.
Repsol increased this week diesel by 2 cents (1,334), Regular 95 Octane
by 2 cents (1,529)...per litre.

With this weeks increase petrol has reached the most expensive price per litre ever in Portugal, passing the historic mark of July 2008, 1,525 eurosper litre...back then the crude price was $147 per barril not at todsaysprice of $91 per barril...

This type of price fixing is not allowed by EEC members but corruption is like a spiders web, reaches all governing bodies.
These prices are higher than the ones practiced in 2008, this and the defice of Portugal will sink even further the consumer spending, demand for petrol will have a decline in the first quarter of 2011 of 24%, according to chief analyst WorldWatch Portugal will enter a recession with possible social unrest caused by the increase in fuel, energy,medical care,education,unemployment (above 11%) and the reduction of public servants wages by 5%.

Wall Street experts

2011-01-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

Stocks have had a medium pace run since bottoming out nearly two years ago, Wall Street experts anticipate 2011 will be much worse, already we have a clear forcast as we see crude prices climb to values that two years ago caused stocks and economies to hit bottom .
Investment strategists and money managers expect the S&P 500 to drop 7%, on average, according to an exclusive WorldWatch survey. In fact, not one of the 32 experts surveyed by WorldWatch Money think the S&P 500 will rise this year.
Everything seems to be in place for the stock market to fall, most European governments stopped stimulative policies that could help stocks keep up their performance.
According to the survey, corporate profits will decline 10% over the course of year, with earnings per share in the S&P 500 averaging just above $42 per share in 2011.
A lot of the company balance sheets up to this point have benefited from significant cost cutting, not sustained revenue growth, and we don't expect to see strong revenue growth in 2011 either.
Most governments will prop up the markets in the first half of the year but will lose steam during the latter half, including China as interest rates will keep climbing.
In the US the Fed will wind down its program in the middle of the year, as it has suggested, we think the second half of the year could be more volatile and challenging for the stock markets.

His year-end target for the S&P 500 is tied for the worst at 1,300 --that's up only 3% from where the index ended 2010.
Stock prices Profit growth has outpaced the rise in Profit growth for the year, thist means the overall market is still cheap.

Crude Speculation

2010-12-28T14:08:00.000-08:00

Portugal continues to have one of the most expensive final consumer price for petrol for the average motorist in the world, as WorldWatch confirmed this month alone consumer prices have increased by more than 8 cents per litre..
The involved companies continue to practice inflated prices as the government goes along with these prices in order to fill the now empty state financial vaults.

Galp Energy increased this week diesel by 2.5 cents (1,334), Regular 95
Octane by 2 cents (1,529)...per litre.
Cepsa increased this week diesel by 1.8 cents (1,331), Regular 95 Octane
by 1.7 cents (1,522)...per litre.
BP increased this week diesel by 1 cents (1,335), Regular 95 Octane by 0.4
cents (1,529)...per litre.
Repsol increased this week diesel by 2.5 cents (1,334), Regular 95 Octane
by 2 cents (1,529)...per litre.

This type of price fixing is not allowed by EEC members but corruption is like a spiders web, reaches all governing bodies.
These prices are higher than the ones practiced in 2008, this and the defice of Portugal will sink even further the consumer spending, demand for petrol will have a decline in the first quarter of 2011 of 24%, according to chief analyst WorldWatch Portugal will enter a recession with possible social unrest caused by the increase in fuel, energy,medical care,education,unemployment (above 11%) and the reduction of public servants wages by 5%.

People’s Bank of China

2010-12-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

China’s monetary tightening in 2011 is a effort to tackle the fastest inflation in more than two years, according to WorldWatch chief analysts.

The People’s Bank of China increased key one-year lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points on Christmas Day in its second move since mid-October.
The change took effect yesterday and according to the current premier Wen Jiabao’s government aims to limit asset bubbles in the real-estate market and prevent rising prices from leading to social unrest after flooding the economy with cash from late 2008 to drive an economic recovery. Officials stated China will raise rates as many as three times in the first half of next year..

These policy moves will be front-loaded in coming months, as headline inflation figures remain high and economic growth faces overheating risks early next year.
The benchmark lending rate rose to 601 percent, compared with 7.47 percent before cuts from late 2008 to counter the global financial crisis. It will climb to 6.56 percent by the end of first half next year.
The deposit rate increased to 2.05 percent, compared with the 5.1 percent annual pace of inflation in November.
Officials have raised bank reserve ratios seven times this year and trimmed loan growth from record levels. They also in June scrapped the yuan’s almost two-year peg to the dollar as part of winding down crisis policies.
Since then, the currency has gained about 3 percent, with non-deliverable forwards showing that traders are betting on a further increase of about 2 percent in the next 12 months.
Consumer prices rose 6.1 percent in November from a year earlier, the most in 28 months, mainly driven by food costs. Across 70 major cities, property prices climbed 8.1 percent.
China’s economy may expand 8.6 percent in 2011, the International Monetary Fund estimated in October. That compared with estimates that U.S. growth will be 2.1 percent and the euro area expansion will be 1.5 percent.

Dubai property slump..

2010-12-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

Dubai property will continue to drop for the next two years, extending a decline in the Persian Gulf sheikhdom that’s already cut values by more than 60 percent since the 2008 peak.

Residential values will fall as much as 20 percent more by the end of 2012if new homes are built as planned, according to broker Landmark Advisory in Dubai. Cluttons LLP, a London-based property consultant, and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., the second- largest publicly traded commercial property broker, also forecast further declines.
About 48,000 homes will come on to the market in the next two years, or about 12 percent of existing supply, according to WorldWatch director of research . An influx of foreign buyers sparked a construction boom as prices rose by 79 percent to mid-2008 from 2007 before the financial crisis caused lenders to tighten credit and speculators left the market.

There is still no parity between supply and demand,about 35,000 homes will be completed through 2012.You’re looking at a good two years for Dubai’s market to reach bottom.
If crude prices continue to rise this situation will be even worse for Dubai and surrounding Nations.
Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai’s biggest developer and the builder of the world’s tallest tower, reported a 7 percent drop in third-quarter profit, missing analyst estimates, as costs and writedowns increased. Construction firm Arabtec Holding PJSC saw earnings slump 96 percent, while apartment and office builder Deyaar Development PJSC reported a loss. Home prices
fell 6 percent in the quarter from the previous three months, Colliers International said on Nov. 7.
Almost half of Dubai’s planned real estate projects, from offices to villas, were canceled as buyers defaulted and access to funding became harder. Residents who lost their jobs had to leave the country within 30 days, causing many to abandon their cars and mortgages.

Without an influx of demand from outside the country, WorldWatch estimates that home prices will drop 5 percent to 10 percent by next summer.
Attracting foreigners became more challenging after the government changed residency rules last year. From 2002, property ownership qualified the buyer for a five-year residency visa that was easily renewed. That changed in May 2009, when new United Arab Emirates regulations cut the length of residency visas to six months and required holders to leave the country and
return for renewals, paying 2,000 dirhams ($546) per visa each time.

The law also says a property must be worth at least one million dirhams and be large enough to accommodate the number of people granted residency as a result. In addition, it requires the buyer to have monthly income of no less than 10,000 dirhams as well as medical insurance.
Home prices will drop 15 percent to 20 percent by 2012 if the most residential buildings currently under construction go onto the market as scheduled.
If the crude price control below $83 a barrel is delayed, that will only prolong the cycle, until prices come down further and buyers have greater certainty over long-term rent yields.

The mother of all recessions

2010-12-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

Oil prices may soar to $200 a barrel if the world doesn’t move more rapidly to a clean-energy economy, It’s certainly conceivable unless we can start to conserve energy quickly and come up with alternative fuels,WorldWatch predicts an “unbelievably painful” economic slump if governments don’t do more to encourage renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels such
as oil. In the U.S., where efforts to cap carbon-dioxide emissions failed in the Senate earlier this year, unemployment could reach record highs, as is the case with Portugal were fuel prices for the motorist increase on a weekly basis making it one of the most expensive in the world.
This week alone prices increased by as much as cents per litre!!!

Galp regular 95 Octane is now a staggering 1,479 euros per litre.
Cepsa regular 95 Octane is now a staggering 1,479 euros per litre.
BP regular 95 Octane is now a staggering 1,479 euros per litre.
Repsol regular 95 Octane is now a staggering 1,489 euros per litre.

We are going to have the mother of all recessions if we don’t sort out our energy policy fast, we think we’ve got it bad today. In five years time unemployment could go to 15 percent without any difficulty at all in the US.
Meanwhile, negotiators from about 190 countries are grappling with how to proceed in United Nations-led treaty talks to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Industrialized and developing nations are divided over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Japan, Russia and Canada have refused to sign up for a second round of emissions reductions once the current ones written into Kyoto expire in 2012.

China "mass liquidation"

2010-11-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

Stocks and commodities prices fell sharply Friday as investors confirmed that China will slow down its surging economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 120 points in early afternoon trading, led by sharp losses in energy and materials stocks.
Concerns that China will raise interest rates in order to fight inflation brought worries that demand from China could wane for a wide variety commodities including crude oil, metals and grains.
Talk of the interest-rate hike in China has led to "mass liquidation" in the commodities market. Losses among commodities accelerated throughout the day. Benchmark crude is down more than 3 percent. Silver prices fell more than 5 percent and soybeans are down nearly 5 percent.
China will formally announce next week the raise in interest rates.

The energy boom's double-edged sword.

2010-11-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

Crude prices nearing $90 for the first time in two years, some economists and producers are getting nervous, according to assistant managing editor WorldWatch First Published: November 8, 2010.

Crude is currently trading around $86 a barrel. Prices have not topped $90 in more than two years. But now that the US the Federal Reserve has made its latest round of quantitative easing official, this attempt to control the dollar may have a negative reaction on crude, some fear that crude at $90 is likely in the not-so-distant future.

The dollar has weakened a lot leading up to the US Fed announcing its $600 billion plan to buy more Treasury bonds. And many experts think the greenback may continue to fall. That would put more pressure on oil prices, which are priced in dollars.
The real question is how much weaker can the US force the dollar to go, particularly relative to Europe. That could get oil beyond $90 sometime soon, and that is be bad news for consumers , who are still reluctant to spend at a time when the economy remains fragile.

Rising energy prices are often viewed as a so-called tax on the consumer.People may have to pay more to fuel up their cars and heat their homes.
Higher oil prices will also jeopardize the recovery of most Nations and in particular the crude producers as demand will decline further, estimates place a drop in demand for this year by 16%, but this figure may continue to rise if the crude prices are not kept around the $76 a barrel.

Shares of Ford (F, Fortune 500) are near a six-year high. GM has returned to profitability and is scheduled to go public again next week. Even Chrysler, which reported a loss Monday, is pointing to better times ahead.
So the last thing any of these companies want is sticker shock at the gas pump, however this is about to happen causing these and other automakers to enter a second recession.

The big issue is about consumer confidence. What you pay for petrol (gas in US) is a very prominent cost. If oil goes over $90, you will see more concerns about consumer spending-

Even if oil does blow past $90 and starts heading toward $100, this will cause consumers to be nervous simply because they've already lived through $100 oil before.
Oil has a long way to go before it reaches the all-time highs of more than $140 a barrel back in July 2008. With that in mind, oil at $90 -- or even $100 -- will be a major pain for consumers.
However, if rising oil prices start leading to higher consumer prices , consumers may start to change their behavior to conserve cash, and find other energy sources.

If oil keeps going higher, people will curb their driving. The prices will become a natural inhibitor to demand. rising oil prices are already having an impact and consumers are being more cautious about what they spend.
Nobody is paying attention to oil and that investors banking on better times ahead for retailers may be in for a shock.People may be spending more at the pump than at restaurants and on shopping over the holidays.The increase in energy prices is diverting money that might be spent elsewhere.

Speculation

2010-10-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch chief analyst has confirmed the news edited in the site http://so-buracos.blogspot.com/ regarding crude and consumer demand.
Speculation is once more driving crude prices to beyond the acceptable price limit of around $76 per barrel (today $82.25), US and European consumer demand has not increased and there is no sign of doing so in the near future.
Europe continues to face serious deficit problems such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal were new economical measures were announced yesterday by the government, cuts in public spending, reduction by 5% in the public servant salary, benefits in IRS, reduced and in most cases cancelled.
What the Portuguese government forgot to mention or announce any control over is the weekly increase in consumer petrol prices, this alone will affect the economy as petrol prices for the motorist keep going up, inflated by greedy companies such as Galp, BP, Repsol, Cepsa, they all practice the same final consumer price ...Regular 95 Octane 1€399 per litre.

Countries in Europe with the cheapest petrol price:
Leetonia --- Romania --- Cypress --- Bulgaria ... Prices: 1,032 to 1,093

Portugal in Europe has one of the most expensive fuel prices, European members are now 27, (compared to Spain) the petrol price in Spain is Regular 95 Octane 1€179 per litre.
In Portugal if the consumer price for petrol is not controlled then a recession in the first quarter of 2011 will happen as demand for petrol and other goods will decline sharply, mainly due to the fact the IRS value will rise to 23% in January 2011..

The Merger

2010-09-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Definitive Agreement, Completion of Acquisition, Genesis entered into the License Agreement with PFIZER.

Double-dip Recession

2010-09-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch expressed no confidence in the U.S. economy and ruled of a possible double-dip recession, according to a published report.
We will have a double-dip recession, there are business closing crude rising past the$75 per barril across the board.
Europe and American banks have not become more open to lending blocking entrepreneurs from seeking finance.
Wells Fargo and others, they would love to have $50 billion more of loans now, but they are responsable for the recession in the financial markets .
No moeney no business, no business no investment, no investment no demand..

REPORT: WorldWatch

One of the richest Nations in the World...

2010-09-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

One of the richest Nations in the World...

Most people have no idea that Portugal is one of the richest Nations in the World, WorldWatch has made a comparison with the United States and found the following...
-Portugal the price of petrol for the everyday motorist costs three times more per litre than in the US.Price per litre 1€434 Regular 95 Octane.
-Portugal has the electricity and cell phone prices 80% more expensive than the US.
-Banks in Portugal charge three times more for transactions than the US.
-A new average car in the US costs 12.000 US dollars (8.320 EUROS); the same car in Portugal will cost you 20.000 EUROS.
-Portugal has an unemployment rate of over 10.8%.Population just over the 10 million people....the US has just over 10 million unemployed or 9.4%.

So who are the richest....

Low Cost Petrol

2010-09-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

As crude prices continue around the $73 per barril it has become aparent that price fixing is one of the hotest topics in one of Europes oldest economies...PORTUGAL
The involved companies Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa practice inflated consumer prices for
petrol, actually PORTUGAL is the first country in Europe to now have low cost petrol...
Galp has opened the first low cost petrol station in Setubal, however they forgot to inform the public of the specification of the petrol, they have always pressured the public and other filling stations that sell cheaper petrol as being harmfull for the engines, but now they have adopted the same strategy low cost filling stations...with one exception, they continue
to have inflated prices.

EUROPE BAILOUT.

2010-08-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch has confirmed that the final consumer price for petrol (gas) has
once more increased in one of Europes oldest economies but also one of the
most monopolized economies in Europe...Portugal.
The final consumer price continues inflated across the entire range ...

Galp 1,419€ per litre for regular 95 Octane.
BP 1,419€ per litre for regular 95 Octane.
Repsol 1,419€ per litre for regular 95 Octane.
Cepsa 1,419€ per litre for regular 95 Octane.

The price fixing is identical in 97% of the petrol stations nationwide,
these prices are combined, planned and executed, in the highways prices
are even more expensive reaching three cents more per litre above the
maximum nationwide.

No wonder the energy companies always manage to have record profit earnings
across the board, we have the example now with the BP's oil spill in the US
.

THE CHINA CRASH !!!

2010-08-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch warns...China's economic growth continued to ease in July,signaling that the world's third-largest economy may need to loosen it's policies to avoid a crash landing.

Chinese industrial production in July rose 13.4% from a year ago, but the growth rate declined for fifth straight month, according to data released wednesday by China's government.
The slowdown in activity is linked to the government's campaigning to end property market speculation, the Chinese government is trying to introduce price caps without hindering the construction industry, a key driver of growth and employment. But this will lower industrial output rates .

The latest data suggests that manufacturing firms that supply materials like copper and steel that goes into building construction informed that work will tail off sharply toward the end of the year.
Retail sales in China also weakened in July, the government said. Sales rose 17.9% from a year ago, but that's down from 18.2% annual growth reached during the first half of the year.

SO A POSSIBLE CHINA CRASH COULD BE AROUND THE BEND..

Soaring Futures

2010-08-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch announces that the wheat futures soaring to their highest level in two years, you could soon find yourself paying more for a loaf of bread at your local grocery store. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday that it has cut its global wheat production forecast for 2010 nearly 4% to 651 million metric tons, down from its June estimate of 676 metric tons.

The drought in Russia is definitely the key factor to the rise in prices, but we've also seen problems in Canada, where crops are going to be smaller this year, and Australia may have a smaller crop, so there are other parts of the world that are seeing problems.

One of Europes oldest economies, Portugal has announced that next week
petrol (gas) and bread consumer prices are once more going up, now that crude is once more below the $80 a barrel,with unemployment over the 11% mark and a economy in recession Portugal will continue with serious financial issues mainly due to the monopoly in price fixing in the energy sector by the petrol companies that continue to inflate final consumer prices.

BP, Galp, Repsol, Cepsa, making Portugal somewhat less supportive of economic growth in recent months.

Dow Jones industrial

2010-08-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Speculation forced Stocks to rallie Monday, extending last month's gains, as investors welcomed upbeat economic reports and strong earnings from European banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 208 points, 2%, according to early tallies. The S&P 500 (SPX) index jumped 24 points, or 2.2%, and the Nasdaq (COMP) composite gained 41 points, or 1.8%.
The rally came after stocks rose 7% in July, marking the best monthly gain in a year, on solid second-quarter results from a range of major U.S. companies. The bullish tone carried over Monday as investors cheered quarterly results from European banks HSBC and BNP Paribas.
Energy giants Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and ExxonMobil (XOM, Fortune 500) both jumped as oil prices surged past $80 a barrel on renewed optimism about global economic growth. But the rally was broad-based too.
All 30 Dow stocks were positive, with the biggest gains in the materials and
technology sectors.
While questions remain about growth in the second half of the year, most European economies show worries that the economy could relapse into recession as crude prices are being forced beyond the $80 a barrel.
There are no convincing arguments that the economy is not going to double dip.
Stocks closed mixed Friday as economic concerns tempered upbeat earnings sentiment. Despite the rally in July, the market is up modestly for the year.
Stocks had slumped in April and May amid concerns about the European debt crisis and mixed economic indicators in the United States.
Looking ahead, investors said the focus may not shift later this week from earnings to the economy, particularly the outlook for the U.S. job market.
One of Europes oldest economies, Portugal will continue with serious financial issues mainly due to the monopoly in price fixing in the energy sector by the petrol companies that continue to inflate final consumer prices, BP, Galp, Repsol, Cepsa, making Portugal somewhat lesssupportive of economic growth in recent months.

Currencies and commodities:

The dollar was lower versus the euro and the British pound, but up against the Japanese yen.
U.S. light crude oil for September delivery rose $2.51 to settle at $81.46 a barrel.
COMEX gold's December contract edged up $1.50 to close at $1,185.40 per ounce.

BP Chief Executive

2010-07-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward will step down as chief executive , the
company announced Tuesday, amid ongoing outrage over the oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico.
BP said Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley effective Oct 1.
Like Hayward, Dudley is a long-time BP employee with more than 30 years in
the oil business. A chemical engineer by training, Dudley was put in charge
of the day-to-day leadership of the Gulf Coast clean-up operation in June.

‘Bob' started is carrer in Amoco in 1979 then going to BP in 1998, in both
cases his function was superviser exploration activites in Russia, however
he had to leave rather abruptly after being acused by the soviet
authoraties of spying.According to BP his biggest advantage is the fact he
grew up in the state of Mississipi were part of the spill acurred.
BP said Hayward will receive a year's salary amounting to $1.6 million but
further details of his severance package were not disclosed.
According to BP's most recent annual report, Hayward amassed a pension
worth nearly $17 million in his 28 years of service, which is expected to
be doled out in annual payments of more than $900,000.

The company also plans to nominate him as a non-executive director of
Russian oil and gas venture TNK-BP.There are also plans for Tony Hayward to
be nominated for a executive director position in ExxonMobil Europe Operations
based in London.

The announcement of the change in leadership came as BP reported a
second-quarter net loss of $17.2 billion. The heavy loss was due to a $32.2
billion charge the company took related to the oil disaster.
With Dudley based in London, the overseeing of the clean-up effort will be
headed by BP America President Lamar McKay.The company has already committed $20 billion to compensate individuals and
businesses affected by the spill. But it still could face billions more in
fines and legal costs associated with the explosion.

Hostile takeover of BP.

2010-07-12T14:34:00.001-07:00

The final consumer price for petrol (gasoline) for the motorist in one ofEurope’s oldest economies, Portugal continues to defy all reasonablelogic...Speculation is the method most used by oil companies such as Galp, BP,Repsol and Cepsa, also involved are the government and some local media, acartel of price fixing is used to place the final consumer price the sameall over the country.However there may be a change in the major players in the crude industry,BP is having an immensely challenging period to regain competitiveness internally and externally, they have now spent billions with the US spill, growth will remain subdued for some time, to be sure, BP weakness willbenefit other crude producers as is now the case ...ExxonMobil and Chevron have requested the U.S. government's clearance tomake a bid for BP worth about $150 billion, it was also reported that BP is looking to sell its stake in the United States' largest oil field, the Prudhoe Bay project in Alaska, to boost its clean up fund for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Volatility and Stocks

2010-07-07T02:50:00.000-07:00

List of stocks whose Volatility has been increasing over the last 3 days based on the trading range between high and low prices .

VZ - Verizon Comm
AMAT - Applied Materials
BRCM - Broadcom Corporation
HD - HOME DEPOT INC
MAS - Masco Corporation
BK - Bank Ny Mellon
CBG - CB RICHARD ELLIS GR
LOW - LOWES COMPANIES INC
NEM - NEWMONT MINING CORP
LLY - LILLY ELI & CO
GPS - GAP INC
DD - DUPONT
CHRW - C.H. Robinson World
CRUS - Cirrus Logic, Inc.
WYN - Wyndham Worldwide WI
MT - Arcelormittal
FDO - FAMILY DOLLAR STORE
UNH - UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC
SBUX - Starbucks Corporation
M - FEDERATED DEPARTMENT
APL - Atlas Pipeline Part.
HOLX - Hologic, Inc.
LCC - US AIRWAYS GROUP INC
KIM - KIMCO REALTY CORP MD
EP - EL PASO CORP
PPL - PPL CORPORATION
CEPH - Cephalon, Inc.
BBY - BEST BUY CO INC
WLP - Wellpoint Inc
IDTI - Integrated Device T
PNC - PNC Financial Services
PCX - Patriot Coal Corp
KGC - KINROSS GOLD CORP
MDT - MEDTRONIC INC
WMB - WILLIAMS COS INC
SWKS - SKYWORKS SOLUTNS
MYL - Mylan Inc
CMS - C M S ENERGY CORP
DPS - DR Pepper Snapple G
PHM - Pultegroup Inc
STR - QUESTAR CORP
DAL - Delta Airlines
HSP - HOSPIRA INC
COV - Covidien Plc
SU - SUNCOR ENERGY INC
AFFX - Affymetrix, Inc.
AMGN - Amgen Inc.
CCE - COCA COLA ENTERPRISES
GPN - GLOBAL PAYMENTS INC
SVU - SUPERVALU INC
ILMN - Illumina, Inc.
JCP - PENNEY J C CO INC
PEP - PEPSICO INC
XL - Xl Group Plc
PDE - PRIDE INTL INC
RDN - RADIAN GROUP INC
ARW - ARROW ELECTRONICS INC
CI - C I G N A CORP
PIR - Pier 1 Imports Inc
LPX - LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORP
TJX - TJX COMPANIES INC
AUO - AU OPTRONICS CORP
BX - Blackstone Group LP
AMLN - Amylin Pharmaceutical
AES - A E S CORP
PCAR - PACCAR Inc
JEC - JACOBS ENGR GROUP INC
ING - Ing Groep NV ADR
FTO - FRONTIER OIL CORP
ARO - AEROPOSTALE INC
DNDN - Dendreon Corporation
K - KELLOGG CO
CAL - CONTINENTAL AIRLINES
LM - LEGG MASON INC
WM - WASTE MANAGEMENT INC
DNR - DENBURY RESOURCES INC
AVY - AVERY DENNISON CORP
SPG - SIMON PROPERTY GROUP
WBSN - Websense, Inc.
JBL - JABIL CIRCUIT INC
AEE - AMEREN CORP
IACI - IAC InterActiveCorp
CREE - Cree, Inc.
SKS - SAKS INC
AONE - A123 Systems Inc
SLAB - Silicon Laboratories
AMT - AMERICAN TOWER CORP
BPO - BROOKFIELD PROPERTIES
URI - UNITED RENTALS INC
TE - TECO ENERGY INC
KMB - KIMBERLY CLARK CORP
XRAY - DENTSPLY International
RMBS - Rambus, Inc.
SFD - SMITHFIELD FOODS IN.
WSM - WILLIAMS SONOMA INC
SWC - Stillwater Mining Co
TIN - TEMPLE INLAND INC
CE - CELANESE CORPORATION
CSE - CAPITALSOURCE INC
CIT - CIT GROUP INC
AGCO - A G C O CORP
WAT - WATERS CORP
PXD - PIONEER NATURAL RES CO
HGSI - Human Genome Sciences
ARM - ARVINMERITOR INC
MBT - MOBIL TELESYSTEMS
AVT - AVNET INC
BYD - BOYD GAMING CORP
NIHD - NII Holdings Inc
LBTYA - Liberty Global Inc
JWN - NORDSTROM INC
VPHM - ViroPharma Incorporation
AIV - Apartment Investments
LMT - LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP
TIVO - TiVo Inc.
JLL - JONES LANG LASALLE INC
VAR - Varian Medical Systems
CPB - CAMPBELL SOUP CO
IMAX - Imax Corporation
SNE - SONY CORP
ANF - ABERCROMBIE & FITCH CO
ALB - ALBEMARLE CORP
JDAS - JDA Software Group
JOYG - Joy Global Inc
PNW - PINNACLE WEST CAP CORP
ODFL - Old Dominion Freigh
RYL - RYLAND GROUP INC
RRD - Donnelley (RR) & Sons
PCP - PRECISION CASTPARTS
WRB - WR Berkley Corp
BMS - BEMIS CO INC
AHD - ATLAS PIPELNE HLDING
CLNE - Clean Energy Fuels
TLB - TALBOTS INC
QGEN - Qiagen N.V.
VNO - VORNADO REALTY TRUST
RL - POLO RALPH LAUREN CORP
WRI - WEINGARTEN REALTY INVS
LPL - LG Display Co
CMC - COMMERCIAL METALS CO
LEG - LEGGETT & PLATT INC
MJN - Mead Johnson Nutrition
GNA - GERDAU AMERISTEEL CP
KMT - KENNAMETAL INC
ONXX - ONYX Pharmaceutical
AXS - AXIS CAPITAL HLDGS LTD
KNX - Knight Transportation
NGD - DRC RESOURCES CP
SOLR - GT Solar International
DTG - DOLLAR THRIFTY AUTO
PRGO - Perrigo Company
BIG - Big Lots Inc
BRE - B R E PROPERTIES IN
RS - RELIANCE STEEL & AL
EQIX - Equinix, Inc.
HTS - Hatteras Financial
TAP - ADOLPH COORS CO
SOHU - Sohu.com Inc.
CRDN - Ceradyne, Inc.
NVE - SIERRA PACIFIC RESOURCES
NTRS - Northern Trust Corp.
ROVI - Macrovision Corporation
ELNK - EarthLink, Inc.
ESI - I T T EDUCATIONAL SVCS
ICLR - ICON plc
TWI - TITAN INTL INC
CVE - Cenovus Energy Inc
DKS - DICKS SPORTING
PSYS - Psychiatric Solutions
PWE - PENN WEST ENERGY TRU
PSS - Collective brands
SDRL - SEADRILL LTD
TCO - TAUBMAN CENTERS INC
ZRAN - Zoran Corporation
AMG - AFFILIATED MNGRS GR
HRC - Hil-Rom Holdings
XTXI - CROSSTEX ENERGY INC
BID - SOTHEBYS HOLDINGS IN C
ENR - ENERGIZER HOLDINGS INC
SGEN - Seattle Genetics
RBCN - Rubicon Technology Inc
RCII - Rent-A-Center Inc.
CLX - CLOROX CO
THOR - Thoratec Laboratories
BGC - General Cable Corp
ENH - Endurance Specialty
FMC - F M C CORP
ARG - AIRGAS INC
CIB - BANCOLOMBIA S A
CPO - CORN PRODUCTS INTL INC
BECN - BEACON ROOFING SUPP
CETV - Central European Me
SJM - Smucker JM Co
NAV - NAVISTAR INTL CORP
VQ - Venoco Inc
VOLC - VOLCANO CORPORATION
FINL - Finish Line, Inc.
LAZ - LAZARD LTD
AHL - ASPEN INSURANCE HLD
MEND - MICRUS ENDOVASCULAR
OKE - ONEOK INC
HA - Hawaiian Holding
ATHN - athenahealth Inc
CNC - Centene Corporation
WCRX - Wrner Chil Plc A
LII - Lennox International
GIB - CGI GROUP INC
SMOD - SMART MODULAR TEC
PBY - PEP BOYS MANNY MOE
LULU - lululemon athletical
SLF - Sun Life Fincl Inc
RCI - ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS
AAP - ADVANCE AUTO PARTS INC
TRI - THOMSON CORP
DDS - DILLARDS INC CL A
PAAS - Pan American Silver
MASI - Masimo Corp

One of the most expensive in the World...

2010-07-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

The final consumer price for petrol (gasoline) for the motorist in one of Europe’s oldest economies, Portugal continues to defy all reasonable logic as Prices continue to go up.
Speculation is the method most used by oil companies such as Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa, also involved are the government and some local media, a cartel of price fixing is used to place the final consumer price the same all over the country.
The litre of petrol is at its highest in the last 18 months, this year alone prices have increased 12%.
Regular 95 Octane in January 2010 was 1,295 Euros per litre, six months later the same litre has an inflated price of 1,495 Euros.
This means that the motorist needs more 5, 05 Euros to fill a 50 litre tank...
The last time prices were so inflated was in October 2008.when crude prices reached the $146 per barrel....
These ridiculous prices affect all sectors of the crippled economy as there is a direct influence in company budgets as well as the average motorist who has less and less money ..
According to World Watch decline in demand this year is expected to fall 16%...

BP's CEO Tony Hayward

2010-06-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

BP's stock price hit a new low Thursday, amid a sell-off in the broader equity markets, as investors remained wary about the Gulf of Mexico debacle and strength of the economy.
The troubled oil giant's stock fell 3.1% to close at $28.74 a share. It fell to a low of $28.56 in the day, piercing the 52-week low set on June 9. The stock is now down 52% since April 20, when its Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers.
The entire energy group isn't faring well, there's a lot of rhetoric
around the costs to BP and the rest of those involved in the oil spill, and estimates for cleanup and litigation will keep going higher.

The US uncertainty around the moratorium on offshore drilling is also weighing on the stock.
Global equity markets have struggled in recent sessions, but BP's stock held steady, buoyed by the company's decision to suspend during two years its dividends and the removal of CEO Tony Hayward from day-to-day leadership of the cleanup operations.
Some analysts have called the stock a 'buy,' even after recent downgrades by credit rating agencies and a pending lawsuit from one of the largest public pension funds in the United States, saying that its financial resources outweigh the potential cost of the oil spill.

BP's stock price hit a new low Thursday, amid a sell-off in the broader equity markets, as investors remained wary about the Gulf of Mexico debacle and strength of the economy.
The troubled oil giant's stock fell 3.1% to close at $28.74 a share. It fell to a low of $28.56 in the day, piercing the 52-week low set on June 9.
The stock is now down 52% since April 20, when its Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers.
The entire energy group isn't faring well, there's a lot of rhetoric around the costs to BP and the rest of those involved in the oil spill, and estimates for cleanup and litigation will keep going higher.

The US uncertainty around the moratorium on offshore drilling is also weighing on the stock.
Global equity markets have struggled in recent sessions, but BP's stock held steady, buoyed by the company's decision to suspend during two years its dividends and the removal of CEO Tony Hayward from day-to-day leadership of the cleanup operations.
Some analysts have called the stock a 'buy,' even after recent downgrades by credit rating agencies and a pending lawsuit from one of the largest public pension funds in the United States, saying that its financial resources outweigh the potential cost of the oil spill.
The company has agreed to set aside $20 billion in an escrow account for
spill-related costs, a sum that does not cover fees and penalties that
could be imposed by the federal government. final costs could rise over $32 billion.
BP has so far spent $2 billion to clean-up its mess in the Gulf. That
price tag is likely to soar as it pays out spill-related claims and faces a legal tangle.

Uncertainty will cause the energy space to have an overhang for years to come, as the demand in some European nations for BP gasoline (petrol) will continue to fall as long as BP, Galp, Repsol and Cepsa amoung others continue to practice inflated consumer prices, as is the case with
Portugal were the British conpany (BP) has one of the highest final consumer price for the consumer, regular 95 Octane 1.459 € per litre....
According to WorldWatch demand for crude will continue to fall around the globe as OPEC cannot maintain the crude prices per barril between $68 and $74 per barrel .
US gasoline stocks are the highest in twenty years with tendency to continue.

U.S. Europe stocks

2010-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

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.

Possible take over...

2010-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Deep-Water Pause

2010-05-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

A list of 33 deep-water Gulf of Mexico floating rigs affected by the Obama administration’s drilling moratorium as of May 26, according to an official with the Minerals Management Service:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (5 rigs)
Eni SpA (3)
Marathon Oil Corp. (3)
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (3)
Statoil ASA (2)
Chevron Corp. (2)
Noble Corp. (2)
Devon Energy Corp. (2)
BP Plc (2)
BHP Billiton Ltd. (2)
Hess Corp. (1)
LLOG Exploration Co. (1)
Walter Energy Inc. (1)
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (1)
ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (1)
Newfield Exploration Co. (1)
Nexen Inc. (1)

Example of Grece

2010-05-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch Portugal office has informed than the cartel in the petrol price fixing practiced in one of Europe’s oldest economies continues, even now as crude prices are below the $68 per barrel the final consumer price has once more gone up... BP and Galp have the most expensive petrol consumer price in Portugal, BP regular 95 Octane is fixed at 1,449 € per litre.
One of the most expensive in the world.
At the market price consumers should be paying for regular 95 Octane 1,159 € per litre, no wonder Portugal has the economy is serious difficulties and are about to become worse as new Tax rates will be implemented next month.
WorldWatch foresees a decline in consumption of 23% with the biggest drop being the demand for petrol. The cartel in the petrol price fixing has the approval of the Government as each litre of petrol sold to the consumer is heavily taxed. With the economical measures taken by the Government and the attitude of energy companies there will be no room for economical growth in Portugal.
We have the example of Grece...

$420 MILLION AND COUNTING

2010-05-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

BP has incurred $420 million in costs so far from response, containment,relief well drilling and payments to Gulf Coast states, suggesting thefinal bill could be much higher than many analysts predicted.
BP is ill prepared to deal with such an incident.
BP shares fell 11 percent at 1430 GMT, lagging a 5.8 percent rise in theSTOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index. The stock dropped as low as 540.7p inLondon, its lowest since November. BP's American Depositary Receipts fell0.5 percent in New York.
The stock has lost around 17 percent since the rig blast, wiping around $33billion from BP's market value.
One economist predicts the spill's impact on the Gulf Coast will bewidespread, although jobs created for clean up efforts will spawn temporarynew jobs and demand for housing., but there will be more predictedlong-term casualties in terms of businesses lost, property depreciation andthe displacement of workers.

The crash !!!

2010-05-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

Finally the crash week has ended!!! A week back no one imagined we would have a crash, something unforseen forced many investors into a crazy out ofcontrol state for some minutes, with stocks falling sharply with loosesaround the 30 to 60%. During some seconds the market was hit by massive orders to sell, that created massive panic, until now no one can explain exactly what happened. We will see how the markets react next week, what we need now is for the markets to settle down so that we may return to the gains we were having. It’s important to point out that the biggest world economies continue to grow at a faster pace than expected, however the Greek situation must be watched closely in order not to affect even more the Financial World. In all this negative atmosphere Portugal continues to have record profits for the energy companies such as Galp, Repsol, BP and Cepsa, even as crude prices fall below $80 per barril these companies once more increased final consumer prices at the pump, this way record profits are guaranted and revenue for the ever unpopular government continue. Portugal has one of the Worlds highest petrol prices for the consumer, the price paid by motorists for crude is not $80 per barril but rather a stagering $132 per barril !!! WorldWatch announced a 12% drop in petrol demand for Portugal second quarter 2010, if prices continue to increase for no apparent reason , than the demand will certainly drop further.
To contact the Author..http://www.so-buracos.blogspot.com/

The Chinese crash...

2010-05-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

WorldWatch said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.
The Shanghai Composite Index has failed to regain its 2009 high while industrial commodities and shares of Australian resource exporters are acting “heavy”.

The opening of the World Expo in Shanghai last week is “not a particularly good omen, citing a property bust and depression that followed the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna.
The market is telling you that something is not quite right.

The Chinese economy is going to slow down regardless. It is more likely that we will even have a crash sometime in the next nine to 12 months.”

This crash will start with a possible 12% drop in fuel demand...

Investor Optimism

2010-04-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

Speculation boosted investor optimism that demand in the world’s largest economy U.S. is recovering. The U.S. labor market report shows U.S consumer spending has not improved for a third month.
Contracts for crude have also been formed using speculation as a base, crude oil for May delivery rose as much as 1.2 percent to $85.89 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Oct. 9, 2008. It was trading at $85.21 in Asia trading. Speculation showed economic data indexes are getting better and that is supporting crude oil prices, so now we have no economic recovery and prices are struggling above $87 with no evidence of growth, this will cause a revenue drop in most crude dependent states as there will be a decline in demandover the next months. Oil prices have established a floor of $75 a barrel and there is no need for OPEC to increase production, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said April 2.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil and slashed output in January 2009 to prevent a glut. The group left its production targets unchanged when ministers met in Vienna on March 17. Some petrol companies in Europe use every available excuss to inflate final consumer prices as is the case with Portugal... As http://so-buracos.blogspot.com/ informed last week, the price of petrol for the motorist in Portugal this week has once more increased...The price per litre has passed the 1,44 Euro for the first time in 19 months, Portugal continues to have one of the highest consumer price for petrol in the world ...The companies involved in this squeme are, Galp 1,449 euro, Cepsa 1,449 euro, BP 1,459 euro, Repsol 1,414 euro, these prices are for regular 95 Octane.

The downgrading of Portugal

2010-03-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

As announced by WorldWatch the euro weakened against 14 of its 16 most-traded peers in New York.

The MSCI World Index of stocks in 23 developed nations slid 0.6 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent, retreating from an 18-month high. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of commodities fell to the lowest level since Feb. 12 as oil slid 1.5 percent, copper dropped 1 percent and lead tumbled 2.8 percent. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 7 basis points to 3.76 percent.

The euro slid to a 10-month low against the dollar, while stocks, commodities and Treasuries also retreated, as concern grew that Greece may default and Portugal’s debt was downgraded by Fitch Ratings.

Greece is going to default at some point, and Europe’s failure to answer that challenge will hurt the common currency, If Europe can’t solve a small problem like this, how on earth is it going to solve the larger problem, which is the euro doesn’t work.

The S&P 500 fell for the first time in three days after closing at the highest level since September 2008 yesterday. Concern over Portugal and Greece overshadowed a third straight monthly increase in orders for durable goods, a sign the manufacturing rebound will keep propelling the U.S. recovery. European reports showed that the region’s services and manufacturing grew at the fastest pace since August 2007 and German business confidence increased.
The downgrading of Portugal is a consequence of the inflated petrol prices practiced by Galp,BP, Repsol and Cepsa and if the situation is not corrected by the government then a further downgrading is possible.

Crude oil slid 1.5 percent to $80.67 a barrel after a 7.5 million-barrel increase in U.S. inventories reported yesterday by the American Petroleum Institute. The euro declined as much as 1.2 percent to $1.3333, the lowest level since May 2009.

While most European stock gauges declined, Greece’s ASE Index rose 0.9 percent. Portugal’s PSI-20 Index slumped 1.3 percent, the most in a month...

Main Topic

2010-03-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

As http://so-buracos.blogspot.com informed last week, the price of petrol for the motorist in Portugal this week has once more increased...
The price per litre has passed the 1,40 Euro for the first time in 18 months, Portugal continues to have one of the highest consumer price for petrol in the world ...
The companies involved in this squeme are, Galp 1,409 euro, Cepsa 1,409 euro, BP 1,419 euro, Repsol 1,414 euro, these prices are for regular 95 Octane.

95 Octane. (per litre)
Galp 1,409
Cepsa 1,409
BP 1,419
Repsol 1,414

DIESEL (per litre)
Galp 1,144
Cepsa 1,147
BP 1,155
Repsol 1,154

A year ago to fill a normal 50 litre car tank we paid 57,85 euros, today the same tank will cost 70,95 euros...
These prices will shortly start a cascade of higher prices in all consumer goods,services and retail prices, according to WorldWatch Portugal faces the risk of becoming bogged down in a even worse economical situatioon than that of Greece.
These petrol consumer prices are equivalent to when crude was at a record of $147 per barril...
Besides the directly involved companies the government is also to blame for the inflated prices, the revenue in Tax obtained is huge and according to local newspapers corruption is a main topic for most politicians and government company CEO.

Europe’s oldest economies.

2010-02-25T15:24:00.000-08:00

According to the latest news from Portugal , fraud is practiced by local authoraties, government and international companies such as oil companies on a daily basis!!!
Everyday the world faces serious economic difficulties, unemployment, more and more companies closing down, massive layoffs, sales dropping, production levels at the lowest ever, but somehow the Portuguese government and oil companies like Galp,BP,Cepsa and Repsol take upon themselves to on a weekly basis increase the final consumer price at the pump sometimes two or three times per week....
Its measures like these that have placed the world economy in a recession, Portugal has one of the worlds most expensive consumer oil prices, even now as oil prices slipped below $78 a barrel as investors grappled with the prospect that global growth will be slower than originally feared. Oil prices have fallen about 67% in four months, plunging from a record $147.27 in mid-July 2008. However this decrease in crude prices does not affect one of Europe’s oldest economies...Portugal...were prices continue to be one of the highest in the world, even when crude prices where at a three-year low Portugal continued to have final consumer prices one of the highest in the world...Oil consumption in Portugal last year dropped more than 14% and all tendencies indicate that it will continue!!!
The consumer price in Portugal is 20% more expensive than in Spain...
This dishonest attitude is lead by the so called national oil company Galp Energia...there is no reason for the increase except greed, the Portuguese Government is also involved in this apparent corruption scheme as the more the companies charge the more taxes the government obtains... This scheme is called "Robin Hood Tax" the more you charge the more Tax I (government) have... As is also tradition one company increases all others follow behind, the prices are also certainly combined between all involved... This arrogant attitude by the oil companies (GALP,BP,REPSOL,CEPSA) and government will no doubt continue as they sink Portugal further into recession.

Announced Sale.

2010-02-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

Announced Sale.
Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, is seeking bids for the company as early as this week. The company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, Taiwan’s HTC Corp. and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. have looked at the company and may make offers...O ther potential suitors are Dell Inc (DELL.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), and handset manufacturer Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and Motorola Inc (MOT.N) .
Palm, which helped pioneer the market for personal digital assistants, would offer suitors the WebOS software that competes against mobile operating systems from iPhone maker Apple Inc. and Google Inc. For Elevation Partners LP, the firm that owns about 30 percent of Palm, a sale may end the volatility of an investment in a stock that surged more than 10-fold since December 2008 before erasing most of the gain.
The Sunnyvale, California-based device maker surged 32 percent last week on the Nasdaq Stock Market on renewed speculation of a takeover bid. Before the rally, the stock had plunged more than 60 percent this year, dragged down by disappointing sales of the Pre and Pixi phones.

Volatility again

2010-02-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

Stocks plunged around the globe, the euro slid to the lowest level since May. Benchmark equity indexes for Portugal and Spain plummeted the most in 15 months. Oil lost 5 percent, the biggest drop in six months, and gold tumbled the most since 2008 as a stronger dollar curbed demand for commodities, some European nations will struggle to finance their budget deficits.
There will be a dramatic increas in volatility again... Even Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. was stripped of its last AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor’s.
Greece’s ASE Index lost 3.3 percent, Portugal led declines in government bonds, with the premium investors demand to hold the nation’s two-year securities instead of benchmark German bunds widening to 156 basis points, the biggest margin since 1997. Confidence in Portugal was shaken yesterday when it cut an issue of 12-month bills to 300 million euros ($417 million) from a planned 500 million euros.
Credit-default swaps on Portugal’s government debt soared 27 basis points to a 223, the most since at least 2004, according to CMA DataVision prices. Contracts on Greece jumped 14 basis points to 411.5, approaching the record 422. Spain CDSs increased 13 basis points to 165, Italy’s were up 7 at 138 and Ireland climbed 6.5 basis points to 169.5.
The focus is shifting toward Spain and Portugal, where the deficit-reduction plans have now been introduced, in the case of Portugal to finance their budget deficits they must also reduce and freeze the salaries of the "government" employees that number above 700 thousand public servants, some frinch benefits should also be stopped.
Energy companies should restrain from constantly incresing consumer prices such as Galp, BP, Cepsa and Repsol, there is no reason for Portugal to have one of the highest final consumer prices for petrol in the world, crude oil for March delivery fell 5 percent to $71.14 a barrel, however consumers are paying a price equivalent to $92.14 a barrel.
What these companies dont realise is that unemployed people don’t spend money....

The Monopoly

2010-01-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

WorldWatch informs that the monopoly in petrol price fixing in one of the worlds oldest economies continues. During this month alone final consumer prices at the pump for motorits have increased by more than five cents per litre.
Now as crude prices have declined these same companies Galp, Cepsa, BP and Repsol decided to once more mislead the public and decreased the
petrol price, but only by one cent and only for diesel products, 95 regular Octane maintains the same inflated price of 1,349€ per litre.
Its due to these attitude that Portugal has a recession gripped economy..
Medical health care appauling..
Education outdated and very esxpensive..
Social services at the edge of collapse..
Corruption according to local newspapers is the only "service " booming..
Unemployment passes the 11% mark..
These are the good news possible related to Portugal....

Fierce Quake Devastates Haiti ..

2010-01-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

The earthquake, the worst in the region in more than 200 years, left the country in a shambles. As night fell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, fires burned near the shoreline downtown, but otherwise the city fell into darkness. The electricity was out, telephones were not working and relief workers struggled to make their way through streets blocked by rubble.

In the chaos, it was not possible for officials to determine how many people had been killed and injured, but they warned that the casualties could be substantial.

Greek tragedy

2010-01-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

Portugal has one of the worst economical economies in Europe, almostidentical to the Greek tragedy, all indications point to a continuing Of the dilemma as the country faces severe measures almost on a daily basis, as is the case with the petrol price paid by the motorist at the petrol filling stations across the country. Today the petrol company’s Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa increased final consumer price by a staggering two cents per litre.

A litre of Regular 95Octane is now 1.401 euro per litre, one of the most expensive in the world. This attitude is possible since the involved companies have the approval of the now useless socialist government to increase the final consumer price as they so desire. Europe Asia and the US have not left the recession zone, in fact some Nations are worse now than two years ago, we have the example of Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal that have serious budget problems, the increase in petrol prices will further reduce demand and public spending by more than 7% this year alone, this will be aggravated next year by a 2% increase in Tax to a record breaking 23%, this ridiculous measure taken by the useless Prime minister Socrates will have serious inverse economical effects on the economy and population whose unemployment rate is now over 10.5%.

Filling a normal 50 litre petrol tank the motorist must pay 6 € more than in January this year for the same amount.

Oil prices rose to near $83 a barrel Monday due to the stonger dollar and speculation that the U.S. central bank will soon move to bolstera spluttering economic recovery.

WorldWatch

2010-01-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

Oil prices in Portugal are about three times higher than a year ago. The dollar remains weak, the price gains have come even though demand in Portugal. remains weak with a forcast for the first quarter 2010 down 7%.

There is a long history of tripled oil prices causing consternation among consumers, we are not there, yet, but consumer prices for regular 95 Octane at 1.45€ per litre are certainly an unwelcome sign of consumer distress. Prices have jumped 6 cents or more in the past week in many parts of the country, including Porto, Lisbon, Braga, Faro..

According to WorldWatch higher prices are taking their toll on debt-ladened consumers trying to reorganize their finances. The higher cost will first hit the nation's savings rate, he said. After that, it means delays in big ticket purchases such as cars and houses. Portugal won't be as shocked as they were two years ago, however, when prices hit a national average for regular 95 Octane at 1.45€ per litre, the effect on the recession gripped economy will be devastating causing the government to collapse.

The higher prices comes as the government and the oil companies such as Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa continue the monopoly of high fuel prices for the motorist. higher prices will hurt the economy and push it deeper into recession.

Today crude prices dropped as demand for heating oil, natural gas and electricity have not increased as expected.

Burj Dubai Sky Scraper.

2010-01-04T14:43:00.000-08:00

Dubai opened to the public today the tallest tower in the world, the Burj Dubai, 818 meters sky high. Despite the financial shock of the end of last year, due to the ever growing financial difficulties of the real estate, Burj Dubai was inaugurated today, at around 25 thousand euros per square meter, almost half the stipulated price of first quarter 2009.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum inaugurates today the tower Burj Dubai, with 169 floors, which is the tallest structure ever built by man. Started building in 2004, the Burj Dubai is essentially a residential building. It has 900 studios, 144 apartments, designed by Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani. Another record of the Burj Dubai is the world's tallest pool, situated on the 76th floor. Given its height, the tower has a temperature in the ground which is about 10 degrees higher than the top. Also a mystery is who is going to live and work there, which is said to be a matter of client confidentiality. Despite the recession, the developers say it is sold out.
However, Dubai and surrounding neighbors are now certain to face second quarter of 2010 serious economical crises as the crude prices are now in the $81 per barril margin, according to WorldWatch this will cause a 12% drop in demand for crude in most industrialized nations.
The OPEC memebers cannot control speculation and this will have negative effects on all recession gripped economies as is the case with Dubai...

Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

2009-12-29T03:29:00.000-08:00

SEATTLE, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) (Nasdaq and MTA: CTIC) announced today that on December 24, 2009, CTI's Board of Directors (the "Board of Directors") rejected and dropped a Shareholder Rights Plan (the "Rights Plan") in which one preferred stock purchase right could be distributed for each common share held as of the close of business on January 7, 2010. Initially, the rights are exercisable, and are attached to and trade with, all of the shares of CTI's common stock outstanding as of, and issued subsequent to, the record date.

Dubai scheme..

2009-12-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

WorldWatch reports that the economical situation of one of Europe’s oldest economies continues to fall, Portugal continues to have one of the worlds most expensive final consumer price for petrol in the entire world.

The cartel of price fixing is an open issue for anyone that wishes to confirm how the consumer prices are fixed, mostly on an upward scale.

The international crude price posted a fifth consecutive retreat, the lowest since 09-10-2009, crude oil for January delivery lost 1.7 percent to $72.68 a barrel in New York. , but this drop in prices has not been passed on to the consumer as should be the case,

The Portuguese population continues to pay the price as if the crude was quoted at $123 per barrel, this situation is approved by the government and so the petrol companies Galp, BP, Repsol and Cepsa continue to have record profits.

The demand forecast for petrol products is due to continue to fall as other economical issues emerge, after Dubai World’s Nakheel PJSC lost $3.65 billion, Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece’s credit and German industrial production unexpectedly dropped.

The economic recovery might not be as quick as people thought.

BMW X6 Hybrid .

2009-11-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

The president of OPEC, Mr.Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said Monday (16-11-2009) in Abu Dhabi that the cartel is satisfied with the crude price betweenMr.Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos also mentioned that world demand for crude could rise to 20 million barrels per day and reach the 106 million barrels per day by 2030.

According to WorldWatch the real situation is much different, what happens in 20 years time cannot be predicted, crude demand has in fact declined this year alone by more than 12%, if crude prices are not controlled and kept around the $75 and $78 per barrel, then we will see a further decline in demand and subsequently alternative energy sources will be developed to a new level. If OPEC and speculators inflate prices to around $80 per barrel then they should be prepared to face further decline in demand as most nations are struggling to recover from the worst recession since the Second World War.

High crude prices is the best boost for development of effective alternative energy sources, as has been the case with almost all car manufactures, last week BMW showed its " BMW X6 Hybrid to be world's most powerful gas-electric vehicle"

"High crude prices = further development of other energy sources"

OPEC CRASH..

2009-11-11T15:21:00.001-08:00

OPEC is trying to contain speculation that has once more started to inflate crude prices; the cartel has increased production at the fastest pace in two years to avoid prices from rising above the $75 per barrel, a price that Saudi Arabia has confirmed as adequate both for producers and consumers.

However further action by OPEC is needed to avoid a possible "Opec crash" for prices to remain at around $75 per barrel.

The number of contracts to buy crude at $100 per barrel in the first quarter of 2010 has quadruplicated in October. The cartel has stated that the crude prices at $100 per barrel are not realistic and can only harm the economy of the crude dependent states as most economies are indexed to the energy prices. The crude reserves of most industrialized countries are at record levels, the highest since 1998, the crude prices then were $10 per barrel

In a very near future this market will implode because the prices practiced are inflated and cannot be sustainable, as is already the case with some economies that allow speculation to control consumer prices as is the case with Portugal.

The scheme

2009-11-06T02:36:00.000-08:00

As WorldWatch forecast on previous posts the crude price is speculative, both by petrol companies and less honest governments as is the case with Portugal were once more final consumer prices at the pump have become more expensive.
The companies involved in this scam are,Galp, Cepsa, BP e Repsol, last week alone these same companies increased final consumer price three days in a row, now this week they have once more increased consumer final prices at the pump by...

Galp increased regular 95 Octane by 1, 5 cents per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,319 euros per litre.
Cepsa increased regular 95 Octane by 1 cent per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,318 euros per litre.
BP increased regular 95 Octane by 1 cent per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,319 euros per litre.
Repsol increased regular 95 Octane by 1 cent per litre; consumer price is now a staggering 1,319 euros per litre.

These companies all practice the same final price with no explanation given to the public as to why...
As mentioned in previous WorldWatch reports the recession will continue as long as these companies and governments continue to use lame excuses to inflate final consumer prices. Regular 95 Octane should have a consumer price of 1,113 euros per litre. At $80 a barrel, Portugal continues to have one of the most expensive petrol prices in the world...

Possible OPEC crash !!!

2009-11-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a cartel of twelve countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
According to WorldWatch most of these net exporters of oil will face serious economical dificulties, starting in the first quarter of 2010, social support will in most cases be reduced and in some stopped, as is the case with Venezuela now agravated with the electrical shortage.
Most of these exporters of oil have the economy indexed directly on the revenue obtained from crude, and since the cartel cannot maintain the barrel of crude at a affordable price which is around the $72.00 a barrel.
Crude oil is poised for its biggest monthly gain in five months after a report yesterday showed the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter, ending a year-long contraction and spurring optimism fuel demand will increase .... This however is pure speculation as most Americans face serious money shortage.
Oil rose 3.1 percent yesterday, the most in two weeks, after the US Commerce Department said the world’s largest energy- consuming country expanded at a 3.5 percent annual pace between July to September.These figures are not real, it’s helped by stimulus from the US government.
Crude oil for December delivery traded at $79.93 a barrel, The dollar fell toward its fourth monthly drop against the euro. It traded at $1.4852 at 2:08 p.m. in Tokyo, from $1.4822 yesterday in New York. A declining U.S. currency spurs demand for commodities, including gold, as an alternative investment.
The dollar fell toward its fourth monthly drop against the euro. It traded at $1.4852 in Tokyo, from $1.4822 yesterday in New York. A declining U.S. currency spurs demand for commodities, including gold, as an alternative investment.
The U.S. economy shrank 3.8 percent in the 12 months to June, the worst performance in seven decades, the recovery will last well into the second quarter of 2010.
The number of Americans collecting unemployment insurance will continue to rise, seven million Americans became jobless during this recession, to create employment for all will be a loosing battle, so claims for jobless benefits will continue according to the Labor Department.
If crude prices continue to rise the economical recovery of most industrialized nations will enter 2010 in the red. The OPEC crash may become a reality.

2009's Hottest Halloween Costume

2009-10-30T03:19:00.000-07:00

Look at this folks !! Quite fantastic.....

Firefighter Equipment

2009-10-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

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