A station attendant fills up a car at
petrol station in Jeddah June 22, 2008. Crude futures continued to climb
up Monday as the supply worries outweigh Saudi Arabia's promise to boost
output. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo
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NEW
YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Crude futures surged sharply and broke the 140 U.S.
dollars level for the first time on Thursday as OPEC predicted oil prices to
rise and Libya threatened to cut production.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 5.09
dollars to settle at a record 139.64 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. Prices continued to rise in the after hour electronic trading and hit
140.39 dollars a barrel, surpassing the previous intraday trading record of
139.89 dollars a barrel on June 16.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil said Thursday he
believes oil prices could rise to between 150 dollars a barrel and 170 dollars a
barrel this summer. Khelil's forecast caused a jump in prices.
Meanwhile, Libya national oil company said the
country may curb output because the oil market is well supplied, according to
news reports of France 24. A falling dollar also helped to push up the crude.
In London, Brent crude for August delivery rose 5.5
dollars to settle at 139.83 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange after
touching a record of 140.56 dollars a barrel.
NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street
plunged Thursday with Dow Jones closing lowest in nearly two years as a series
of bad economic news hit the market and oil prices set a new record at 140 U.S.
dollars a barrel.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery settled at a
record of 139.64 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as OPEC
predicted that oil prices may reach 170 dollars this summer. Full story
NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The dollar fell against most
major currencies on Thursday, extending losses of the previous session as Wall
Street plunged.
The dollar continued losing grounds after the U.S.
Federal Reserve failed to give a strong signal that it would raise interest
rates later this year in its statement released on Wednesday.
The greenback was also hit by bad economic news and
oil prices at new record high on Thursday. Analysts gave negative comments on
General Motors and Citigroup, sent shares of the two large U.S. companies to
their lowest level in years. Full story
WASHINGTON, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. economy grew at
an annual rate of 1 percent in the first quarter of this year, faster than the
0.9 percent pace estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported
Thursday.
The first-quarter growth rate for gross domestic
product or GDP followed growth paces of 0.6 percent in the final three months of
2007 and 4.9 percent in the third quarter of last year. Full story
