Midday Market Roundup

PATISEAR

thanks

The other stock on the selection last Tuesday NPE is now moving well ahead

US Stock futures up ahead of home construction data

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street was headed for a modestly higher open Friday as investors awaited data on new home construction last month.

The Commerce Department is expected to report that construction of new single-family homes and apartments declined in April by about 0.7 percent to an annual rate of 940,000 units, according to the median estimate of economists polled by Thomson/IFR. Building permits, a harbinger of future activity, are anticipated to fall as well.

The stock market has been slammed with poor readings on the housing market for several months now, so weak results do not come as a surprise. However, with Wall Street hoping for an economic rebound in the second half of 2008, many investors are searching for signs that the housing market, while weak, is perhaps bottoming out.

Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 17, or 0.13 percent, to 13,013.

Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2.30, or 0.16 percent, to 1,426.90, and the Nasdaq 100 futures rose 2.25, or 0.11 percent, to 2,038.00.

The stock market rose Thursday for the second day in a row, driving the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to five-month highs, as oil prices reversed gains to trade lower and as data on jobless claims and Philadelphia-area manufacturing came in better than expected.

Light, sweet crude oil rose $1.97 to $126.09 a barrel, near recent record highs, in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange...........

Oil hits new record high near $128/bbl in New York

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Oil soared to a record high near $128 a barrel
in New York on Friday, with tight global distillate markets, long-term supply
fears and dollar weakness spurring the market higher.
At 2.24 p.m., New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude for June
delivery was up $3.50 at $127.62 a barrel, having earlier set an all-time high
of $127.82 a barrel.
In London, Brent crude for July delivery was up $3.51 at $126.14.
Distillate imports by Petrochina are expected to rise by a third to 400,000
tonnes in June, as the Chinese oil giant moves to ensure energy supplies after
Monday's deadly 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province cut its natural
gas-generated power capacity.
Global distillate stocks -- which include heating oil and diesel -- are also
being stretched by heightened buying in Europe, with a spate of refinery outages
hampering supplies.
"Traders are refocusing on the distillate market which remains pretty
tight," said Bank of Ireland analyst Paul Harris.
A softer tone in the U.S. dollar has also fuelled buying, as commodities
priced in the greenback become cheaper for holders of alternative currencies.
The dollar has weakened against the euro after data on Thursday showed U.S.
industrial production fell by 0.7 percent in April, while first quarter GDP in
Europe increased by 0.7 percent.
Bullish predictions from Goldman Sachs, the most active investment bank in
energy markets, have also encouraged buying. The investment bank on Friday
raised its average oil price forecast for the second half of 2008 to $141 a
barrel from $107 a barrel, arguing that global GDP growth is outstripping
production increases, forcing long-dated future contracts higher.
"To balance trend global GDP growth of 3.8 percent against trend supply
growth of 1.0 percent, prices need to rise on average 14 percent from here in
the second half of 2008," the bank said in a research note, adding that
'resource protectionism' by many oil producing countries was curbing supply
growth. ...........

End-of-day Market Roundup