Bloomberg:
- Europe's Donor Nations Demand Tougher Greece Measures to Justify Extra Aid. Europe’s donor nations said Greece will need to meet tougher conditions than last year to win new aid that would avert a debt restructuring and cover almost 30 billion euros ($42 billion) of financing needs next year. Euro-region finance ministers will meet in Brussels on May 16 to discuss more support for Greece beyond the 110 billion- euro rescue granted a year ago, Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads the group, said today in Mainz, Germany. The yield on Greece’s 10-year bond has more than doubled since the bailout to 15.6 percent, complicating its return to market.
- Wholesale Prices Rise, Led by Food, Energy. Wholesale costs in the U.S. rose more than forecast in April, led by higher prices for food and fuel. The 0.8 percent increase in the producer-price index compares with the 0.6 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The core measure, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.3 percent, more than projected. Compared with a year earlier, companies paid 6.8 percent more for goods last month, the most since September 2008, after a 5.8 percent rise in March. Core wholesale prices climbed 2.1 percent in the 12 months ended in April, the most since August 2009. Expenses for intermediate goods rose 1.3 percent from the prior month, while prices of crude goods increased 4 percent.
- Retail Sales in U.S. Rise on Fuel, Food. Retail sales rose in April at the slowest pace in nine months and consumer sentiment declined last week, highlighting the risks that rising gasoline prices pose for the U.S. economy. Purchases increased 0.5 percent, the smallest gain since July, after a 0.9 percent March advance that was more than double the previous estimate, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington.
- Consumer Comfort Declines as Gas Prices Climb. Consumer confidence fell to a six- week low as the costliest gasoline in almost three years worsened Americans’ perceptions of their finances. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index dropped to minus 46.9 in the period to May 8, the worst reading since March, from the prior week’s minus 46.2. Across regions, sentiment suffered the most in the West, where fuel prices exceed the national average. Households paid almost $4 a gallon at the pump last week, the most since July 2008.
- Crude Oil Advances as U.S. Equities Increase, Dollar Declines Against Euro. Crude oil rose as U.S. equities increased and the dollar dropped against the euro, bolstering the appeal of raw materials to investors. Crude oil for June delivery advanced $1.02, or 1 percent, to $99.23 a barrel at 1:23 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped as much as 3 percent to $95.25 today. Prices are up 31 percent from a year ago.
- U.S. Mortgage Rates Fall to Five-Month Low. The average rate for a 30-year loan dropped to 4.63 percent in the week ended today from 4.71 percent, according to Freddie Mac. That is the lowest since the week ended Dec. 9. The 15-year rate slipped to 3.82 percent from 3.89 percent a week ago, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage-finance company said.
- Japan Reactor-Core Damage Worse Than Thought. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said one of the reactor cores at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant is more seriously damaged than previously thought, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis. Fuel rods in the core of the No. 1 reactor are fully exposed, with the water level 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said. “What this means is this is probably going to be a much more difficult cleanup than they originally planned for,” said Paul Padley, a particle physicist at Rice University in Houston. The government and Tepco “have consistently appeared to be underestimating the severity of the situation.”
- Oil, Agriculture ETFs Lure Biggest Investments. The U.S. Oil Fund and Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF attracted more money than any other U.S. exchange-traded fund in the past week following the biggest retreat in commodity prices in more than two years.
- Syrian Forces Detail Professionals. Syrian security forces conducted detentions across at least six cities Thursday that activists said appeared to focus on not only opposition activists but lawyers, doctors, intellectuals and educated professionals.
- AIDS Study Makes Prevention Breakthrough. Treating AIDS patients with antiretroviral drugs makes them strikingly less infectious, researchers said Thursday, in a landmark finding that is likely to reinvigorate efforts to slow the pandemic. The results were so overwhelming that an independent panel monitoring the research recommended the results be released four years before the large, multi-country study had been scheduled to end.
- Indian Real-Estate Firms Turn to Non Banks for Capital. Real-estate firms are approaching non-banking finance companies for loans to pay for land, construction and pre-development of projects, now that most banks have shut their doors on this sector.
- Ratings Firms Notch Legal Victory. Ratings firms won another victory against legal claims that they should be held responsible for billions of dollars in losses suffered by investors during the financial crisis. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Moody's Corp., Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings can't be held liable for their ratings of mortgage-backed securities.
- Web Porn Was Error, Sears(SHLD) Says. Sears Holdings Corp. has apologized to customers after a religious group discovered that pornographic movies could be purchased by minors and others through the Sears.com website.
MarketWatch:
Steelguru:
Reuters:
- Oil Rises Back Above $100; IEA Trims Demand Forecast. Oil had fallen in European trading after the International Energy Agency, in its monthly oil report released Thursday, said preliminary March data suggest near-zero annual growth in global oil demand for the first time since the summer of 2009. “While March estimates are probably distorted by exceptional events in Japan and the timing of Easter holidays, nonetheless $4-a-gallon gasoline is likely to yield an anemic U.S. driving season,” the IEA said. “This is the main change to our demand forecast — a weaker 2011 profile in North America.”
- Kohl's(KSS) Profit Rises, Outlook Cheers Investors.
- US Treasury In No Big Hurry To Sell GM(GM) Shares.
- 11 Weird Rumors Going Around About Goldman Sachs(GS).
- Howard Schultz: The Commodity Rally Is Fake. He said it several month ago he’s saying it again – the commodity rally is all speculators and has nothing to do with fundamentals.
- More Bove on Goldman(GS): This Is The Andrew Mellon Story All Over Again.
- The Clusterstock 50: The 50 Most Valuable Players On Wall Street.
- Jim O'Neill: China is Slowing More Than People Realize - And That's Bad News for Commodities.
- U.S. is gaining popularity with European buyers, citing a report from Montel, an energy news service. Europe imported about 29.8 million metric tons from the U.S. last year, up more than 20% compared with 2009. That made the U.S. the second-biggest coal supplier to Europe after Russia, it added.
Reuters:
- US Has Spent About $750 Million on Libya Conflict - Gates.
- IMF Warns Latin America's Boom Could End in Crisis. Nicolas Eyzaguirre, the IMF's director for the western hemisphere, said that Latin America's economic fundamentals appear to be in good shape. Yet he urged policymakers to take steps to keep their economies from overheating by trimming public spending, maintaining sound monetary policy and setting aside as much of the windfall from the current boom as possible.
- Beijing police may buy drone aircraft at an anti-terrorism equipment show in the city this month, citing Jia Shengwen, a Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau official. The police will use the drones for aerial surveillance, to "monitor trafffic and accidents, and to help with rescue operations."
- China's northern city of Shijiazhuang is planning to confiscate illegally build homes and turn them into housing for low-income residents, citing the local government. Residential buildings built without the approval of construction authorities and those that violate city plans will be seized, with ownership transferred to the government.
- Beijing housing-sales volume fell 32% in the first four months of 2011 from a year earlier, citing the city statistics bureau.
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