Wednesday, August 30, 2006

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. oil and gas reserves could grow by more than 50 percent as three companies said Tuesday that results from a deep-water exploratory drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico indicate a significant oil discovery.

``Fears of an economic slowdown are overblown,'' said Chris Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. ``All eyes are going to be on the labor market and tomorrow's report.''

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Job growth in the U.S. picked up in August and the unemployment rate fell, the latest in a string of reports to show the economy will avoid a sharp downturn.

U.S. gasoline prices, now averaging about $2.80 a gallon, may drop 15 to 20 cents in September, said Tom Knight, director of trading at Truman Arnold Cos., a Texarkana, Texas, fuel wholesaler. Scott Hartman, chief executive officer of CHR Corp., which sells about 100 million gallons a year in Pennsylvania, said $2.50 to $2.60 is possible by December.

Gasoline prices are falling fast and could keep dropping for months."The only place they have to go is down," says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). "We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving." (USA TODAY)

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY BY KIRK SHINKLE Posted 8/25/2006) As the world girds for a slowdown in U.S. growth, the latest reports from abroad offer a hint that pressures from long-rising inflation are wilting.

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve signaled it's in no rush to resume raising interest rates, and may even be done tightening as the slowing economy eases inflation.

(BLOOMBERG)145,000 Germans who fled the fatherland last year amid record postwar unemployment, pushing emigration to its highest level since 1954, Federal Statistics Office figures show. Last year was also the first since the late 1960s that emigrants outnumbered Germans returning home from living abroad, the statistics office said. Even more troubling to German officials and business leaders, many were skilled workers like Koerber. The loss of such people, they say, may threaten Germany's economic competitiveness in the future.

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said ``strong'' growth in U.S. productivity will probably go on for ``some time'' as companies and industries make better use of computers to raise workers' per-hour output.

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) Rising productivity has been an engine of U.S. economic growth for the past decade. The measure of output per hour worked rose at a 1.5 percent annual pace from the 1970s through about 1995 and jumped to 3.5 percent from 2000 to 2003 before cooling to 2.25 percent, Bernanke said. He cited ``leading economists'' as predicting about a 2.5 percent long-term rate.

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