Oil has dropped to $93 a barrel for the first time since February. Gasoline prices have been following oil's decline. Tom Kloza, Chief Oil analyst with Oil Price Information Services tells us what's behind the price fall:
“It's worries about the economy, and the global, macro-economy.”
July Crude closed at $93.01a barrel, down $1.94.
Economic Indicators
After a spate of bad news, now some encouraging news for the US economy: The Conference Board says its survey of leading economic indicators, including consumer confidence, manufacturing, and real estate, rebounded in May from a decline in April. Conference Board Economist Ken Goldstein says the economy will continue to grow, but in fits and starts:
“It’s improvement, it’s slow improvement, but it’s improvement, and it’s choppy improvement. And both of those factors, slow improvement, and choppiness, we’re likely to see continue, right through the summer perhaps, right into the fall.”
Restaurant Industry Poised for Rebound
The U.S. restaurant business is poised for its first inflation-adjusted sales growth in four years. As more people go back to work, though expensive gasoline and soaring foods costs have become increasing concerns, according to industry representatives people are eating out more often, boosting demand at quick-service locations in particular, as employment recovers from the 2008–09 recession, according to Hudson Riehle, research director for the National Restaurant Association
Livestock Groups Pleased with Senate Ethanol Vote
Just two days after the amendment was initially defeated - the effort to repeal the 45-cent per gallon Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and the 54-cent per gallon tariff on imported ethanol got another chance in the Senate late last week. The amendment didn’t get the votes needed to proceed to a final vote earlier in the week, but this time the amendment offered by Dianne Feinstein and Tom Coburn passed by a 73 to 27 vote.
National Pork Producers Council President Doug Wolf says that’s something his group has been after for a long time:
“We just wanted fairness in the marketplace on the cost of corn. It’s not fair to subsidize one industry over another. And we just feel that if we put it on even keel, we can all compete on level ground.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association agrees, calling the vote a giant step toward leveling the playing field for a bushel of corn.
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