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Drivers won't benefit from falling oil prices - Citywire.co.uk
The price of oil fell below the $100 a barrel mark on Friday for the first time since last October, but a weaker pound means drivers won’t save a penny at the pumps.
A barrel of Brent crude fell to $98, down from $120 a barrel last month.
The 2p saving drivers should see at the pumps as a result of lower oil prices, however, has been 'knocked out' because the pound has fallen in value by 4% since the middle of May, the AA explained.
'Had the pound remained worth $1.61 instead of around $1.53 now, further falls in the NW Europe wholesale price of petrol (taking it below $1000 a tonne for the first time since January) would have saved drivers a further 2p a litre,' the AA said.
Meanwhile, retailers have also yet to pass on the full 10p a litre saving from previous falls in wholesale prices to drivers.
Drivers have seen a saving of just seven and a half pence per litre at the pumps, Luke Bosdet of the AA explained. So while a weaker pound means they will not benefit from the most recent drop in wholesale prices, they are still owed a two and a half pence saving from the wholesale price falls seen since mid-April.
Yesterday the average price of petrol in the UK stood at 134.92p a litre, down from the record high of 142.8p seen in April. The cost of diesel, meanwhile, has fallen from 147.93p to 140.52p.
Earlier this week, the government warned fuel companies that they were being given 'one last chance' to improve transparency in the market.
Retailers have long been accused of responding to increases in wholesale prices much more quickly than price falls – prices shoot up like a rocket and fall like a feather, said Bosdet.
Transport secretary Justine Greening has now ordered retailers to set up a code of practice that allows drivers to monitor changes in petrol and diesel prices. If they don't, the government has said it will implement legislation.
Retailers claim that the industry does not understand the complex pricing mechanism, said Bosdet. Yet this fall in the price of oil is a perfect example of why greater transparency in the market would benefit suppliers as well as drivers.
On the one hand transparency would show drivers that a quarter of the savings from the original fall in wholesale prices was yet to be reflected at the pump, while on the other retailers and suppliers accused of pocketing the benefits of falling oil prices, would be able to defend themselves as to why a weaker pound means there will be no added savings.
Gold Price Jump Wipes Out Week's Loss After Disappointing U.S. Nonfarms Report - marketoracle.co.uk
By: Ben_Traynor
WHOLESALE MARKET prices to Buy Gold jumped to $1589 per ounce on Friday, immediately after the release of worse-than-expected US nonfarm jobs data.
The US economy added 69,000 nonagricultural private sector jobs in May, according to official data published Friday, compared with analysts' forecasts for 150,000.
The US unemployment rate meantime ticked higher to 8.2% - up from 8.1% in April.
Gold's jump wiped out its losses for the week. By Friday afternoon in London, prices to Buy Gold looked set for a 0.6% gain on where they started the week.
Silver also spiked higher following the US jobs news, climbing to $28.14 per ounce – though this was still 1.4% down on the week.
"The larger trend [however] remains bearish," says technical analyst Russell Browne at bullion bank Scotia Mocatta.
A day earlier, gold's final London Fix of May 2012 was down 5.6% on April's last Fix – the third monthly fall in a row by Gold Fix prices. Spot Gold meantime – which back on February 29 fell by $100 an ounce after the PM Fix – ended May by making fourth straight monthly loss in Dollar terms.
By London Fix prices, gold has not fallen four months in a row since summer 1999.
In contrast with gold, European stock markets fell following the nonfarms release, extending their losses from Friday morning's trading.
Earlier in the day, German 10-year Bund yields fell to a fresh all-time low below 1.15%, while on the currency markets the Euro sank to its lowest level against the Dollar since June 2010.
Spain's banking system meantime saw €97 billion of capital leave the country in the first three months of 2012, according to figures published Thursday evening by the Spanish central bank. The Spanish government, which this week saw its implied 10-Year borrowing costs breach 6.7% for the first time since November, is trying to raise €19 billion to rescue nationalized lender Bankia.
The International Monetary Fund yesterday denied rumors that Spain's government has approached it for a bailout.
Over in Ireland, votes were being counted Friday following yesterday's referendum on whether or not to ratify the European Union's new fiscal treaty, which would impose limits of government borrowing.
"We are very, very confident [of a 'Yes' vote]," said Lucinda Creighton, Ireland's European affairs minister.
Press reports suggest around half of those eligible to vote in the referendum actually did so.
In Greece meantime, the biggest pro-bailout party New Democracy leads second place Syriza in the opinion polls, with just over a fortnight to go until the June 17 elections, news agency Bloomberg reports.
Syriza's leader Alexis Tsipras said Friday that the bailout agreement is a failure, reiterating that Syriza would reverse some of the Greek government reforms if elected, including privatizations and cuts to public sector wages.
"The [bailout] memorandum equals a return to the Drachma," Tsipras added.
The Eurozone's purchasing manager's index for manufacturing, a survey indicator of whether the sector is expanding or contracting, fell from 45.9 in April to 45.1 last month, figures published Friday show. A PMI above 50 indicates sector expansion.
Germany's PMI meantime fell to 45.2 in May – down from 46.2 a month earlier.
The Eurozone's unemployment rate meantime remained at 11.0%.
On the currency markets, the Euro fell to a two-year low against the Dollar Friday morning, remaining below $1.24.
European Central Bank president Mario Draghi warned Thursday that the current Eurozone structure is "unsustainable".
"At the moment, Europe and downside risks to the Euro are the problem for gold," says Michael Lewis, head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank.
"Dollar strength is going to be the big problem over the next few weeks."
The US Dollar Index, which measures the currency's strength against a basket of other currencies, hit its highest level since August 2010 this morning.
Here in the UK, manufacturing activity fell into contraction last month. May's manufacturing PMI was 45.9, compared to 50.2 in April. The consensus forecast among analysts ahead of Friday's PMI publication was for a figure just below 50.
The disappointing UK PMI figure "has increased dramatically the likelihood of the [Bank of England] announcing more quantitative easing next Thursday," reckons Deutsche Bank's chief UK economist George Buckley.
Manufacturing activity also slowed in China, the world's largest source of demand to Buy Gold in the first three months of 2012.
May's official PMI figure was 50.4, down from 53.3 in April. HSBC's PMI meantime, which looks at smaller Chinese firms, showed ongoing manufacturing contraction, falling to 48.4 from 48.7.
In India meantime, traditionally the world's biggest gold buying nation, gold demand for 2012 will fall by 4% by volume compared to last year – but will be 4% up in value terms – according to a report published by researchers at Morgan Stanley.
By Ben Traynor
BullionVault.com
Gold price chart, no delay | Buy gold online at live prices
Editor of Gold News, the analysis and investment research site from world-leading gold ownership service BullionVault, Ben Traynor was formerly editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the UK's longest-running investment letter. A Cambridge economics graduate, he is a professional writer and editor with a specialist interest in monetary economics.(c) BullionVault 2012
Please Note: This article is to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it.
© 2005-2012 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.
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Electricity prices seen ‘moving in the right direction’: skyward - Houston Chronicle
Summer reading, Texas style? (AFP/Getty Images)
This is the summer of truth for Texas’ costly experiment in electricity deregulation. By the time the first cool front rolls across Texas in the fall, it should be clear that under our current system, electricity can be cheap, or it can be reliable, but it can’t be both. And it may be neither.
A study commissioned by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, recommends tripling wholesale prices to avert blackouts like the state experienced in February 2011. The Public Utility Commission will vote on a plan later this month to raise the wholesale price cap by 50 percent, with additional increases planned for next year. ERCOT’s study merely “confirms that we are moving in the right direction,” PUC Chairman Donna Nelson said in a statement today.
After the state embraced deregulation, Texans endured a decade of electricity prices that were higher than most of the country. We were told that was because natural gas prices rose, which no one expected. Now that they’ve fallen to the level they were at when this experiment began, we’re told prices must triple.
For more than a year, Texas has struggled with capacity issues. The wholesale price caps put in place to keep electricity affordable for consumers have prevented generators from investing in additional generating plants. Lenders are unwilling to pump capital into the market because the return on investment is too low.
The solution? Allow prices to rise. And that’s why, despite a decade low in natural gas prices, which account for most of the state’s generation, and falling coal prices, electricity rates are going up across most of the state this summer. The prices increases won’t bring new generation online fast enough to prevent possible shortages this summer, but hey, you have to start somewhere.
By lifting the wholesale price cap, though, the PUC is unleashing another problem: more market volatility. As I wrote a few weeks ago, some spot markets for electricity are already seeing this. The higher caps expand the range of fluctuation for prices. That means retailers — the companies that sell you electricity — must spend more to hedge against price swings. The more they hedge, the more it squeezes their already razor-thin profit margins. In 2008, five retailers shut down because of price volatility. This summer, more could be forced out of business or forced to break their fixed-price contracts with consumers.
On Tuesday, TXU, a Dallas-based retailer, suggested in a filing to the PUC that companies be allowed to break fixed-price contracts with residential and small commercial customers if higher price caps increase retailers’ costs. In what may be the understatement of the year, TXU said it realizes that “changing the price of a fixed-price product would likely create a negative customer experience.” It added:
If, however, this upcoming summer turns out to have extreme weather or extreme price volatility that affects TXU Energy’s wholesale costs, then TXU Energy might be forced to re-evaluate this position.
In other words, TXU wants a fixed-priced contract without a fixed price, and it’s not alone. NRG, which owns Reliant and Green Mountain, and Consolidated Edison Solutions made similar filings.
So 10 years into the deregulation fiasco, we’re looking at a summer in which consumers, having endured years of high prices, can expect them to only go higher; retailers may not be able to afford to honor their customer contracts and generators may not be able to afford to keep the lights on.
This is “moving in the right direction”?
Wellfleet seafood purveyor buys wholesale shellfish company - Abington Mariner
Mac’s Seafood is branching out in search of a bigger market for the shellfish that has made this town famous.
Mac’s Seafood, which was started as a single retail store on Wellfleet’s pier in 1995 by Mac Hay and his brother Alex Hay, has grown to include two markets, one in Truro, the other in Eastham, a certified wholesale processing facility in Truro, and now, as of last month, the Wellfleet Shellfish Co., with its 5,000-square-foot processing plant in Eastham.
Twelve Wellfleet shellfishermen, including Jim Connell, Bob Wallace and Barbara Austin, formed the Wellfleet Shellfish Co. in 2001. It has been selling up to four million clams and oysters yearly nationwide.
Alex Hay, who has been running the Eastham processing plant, located off Holmes Road, since the sale went through, said he and his brother “have been talking to the owners of Wellfleet Shellfish Company for quite some time about getting involved and helping them market the business a little bit more.”
That talk met receptive ears last month, when the owners of Wellfleet Shellfish agreed to sell their company to Mac’s Seafood.
Since then, Alex has been putting in long days at the Eastham plant, which has two 4,000 gallon tanks filled with ice and with hard-shell, soft-shell, steamers and scallops that are placed there to be purged of sand and grit.
When Wellfleet’s famous oysters come in, staff culls them, taking out the small irregular ones, and putting the others in the cooler where they can be bagged up for shipment around the world.
Sam Bradford, cousin to Mac and Alex, and chief financial officer for Mac’s Seafood, said he and his cousins “have our hands full trying to manage the merger of operations, but we are really excited about our potential to get more product and more oysters moving through that place and Wellfleet Harbor.”
Bradford said everyone “seems to be happy that this transition is taking place. The fishermen seem happy with the changes we are making and I think it will a great thing.”
Alex said while Mac’s Seafood has acquired Wellfleet Shellfish Co., both names will still remain.
He said in recent years, “the wild fishery has given Wellfleet a bad name since the wild harvesters have a tendency to pick stuff that is not very desirable. What we will try to do is rebrand the Wellfleet oyster with our company as the Wellfleet Shellfish Company and Mac’s Seafood that sells this high quality oyster. I think it will take a little time to get the supply volume back, but there is a lot of good stuff out there now and we are working with hundreds of shellfishermen.”
Andy Koch, Wellfleet shellfish warden, and a former shellfishermen, said he thinks the 12 shellfishermen who started Wellfleet Shellfish Co. wanted to make sure they had a place to sell their product. They probably sold “because they realized it was not a cash cow.”
Connell, one of the founders, said in press release said, “It’s difficult to mind the farm and the shop at the same time.”
With this purchase, said Alex, Mac’s Seafood’s staff would be more than 200, with the full-time employees living in Wellfleet, Truro and Eastham. With summer approaching, they will have 10 to 12 working around the clock at the Holmes’ Road plant packing orders to go out by truck and Federal Express to their customers.
In addition, Mac’s Seafood will soon have a new website. “We are hoping that new look will spark a huge increase in our web sales,” he said. “We have plenty of business in the summer. We are trying to make it a 12-month business, and keep a year-round full staff.”
New cross-border shopping rules take effect - CTV
TORONTO — Canadian bargain hunters and communities within easy reach of the U.S. border are beginning a new chapter in their relationship with U.S. retailers with new rules on duty-free shopping that went into effect Friday.
The changes -- previously announced in this year's federal budget -- put increased pressure on Canadian retailers and other businesses that have long watched their customers lured Stateside by their rivals' relatively low prices
In most cases, the increases to the duty-free levels are substantial.
Cross-border shoppers who could only declare $50 of purchased goods after an overnight trip are now able to bring $200 worth of merchandise back home.
For people on a jaunt of between two and seven days, the limit has doubled to $800 from $400 while the limit for visits of more than a week increases to $800 from $750.
Travel for less than 24 hours still has no personal exemptions.
"We're responding to the realities of travel," said Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Friday during a news conference at the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, which handles regional airline traffic.
"We want to make the travel experience less bureaucratic and less time consuming."
Oliver said the government estimates the changes will save Canadians about $13 million this year, which will increase to $17 million on an annual basis in 2013.
Stephen Fine, founder of online shopping resource crossbordershopping.ca, said would-be bargain-hunters are keen to take advantage of the new limits.
Shoppers had begun mobilizing to pressure the government into changing the personal exemption rules, he said, adding the 24-hour duty free limit was a frequent bone of contention.
Fine said the government's new regulations have addressed those grievances, but have failed to eliminate the main source of inconvenience, the lack of exemptions for 24 hour trips. Those rules are a sharp contrast to Americans who are entitled to $200 worth of exemptions when crossing the border from Canada.
"There's been a lot of disappointment about that from our audience because the majority of cross-border shoppers are same-day shoppers," Fine said, adding trips of less than 24 hours make up about half of all visits to the U.S.
The lack of a same-day exemption, Fine said, will almost offset the impact of the other rule changes on cross-border traffic.
Officials at some of the country's border crossings agreed the effects won't be easy to spot right away.
Matt Davison, spokesman for the Peace Bridge Authority that oversees the crossing from Fort Erie, Ont. into Buffalo, N.Y., said traffic is expected to remain steady despite the higher limits.
"Weekends are always busy times anyway," he said. "We don't expect to see anything out of the ordinary."
An employee at the duty free shop at Woodstock, N.B., who declined to provide her name, said store staff haven't taken any steps to prepare for an influx of cross-border dealfinders.
Even if it is business as usual for those who man the gateways to the U.S., some companies based in border towns say the government's new regulations don't bode well for their survival.
Marq Smith, owner of motorcycle shop Western PowerSports in Langley, B.C., said he's already lost thousands of dollars worth of business to cross-border shopping over the years.
Raising the duty free limits, he said, is a perfect way to take money away from Canadian business owners.
"We don't get the tax income as a country or a province. That's why I don't understand what the government is doing," Smith said. "Why would they take money out of their pockets, which of course is our pockets, by enhancing the ability to bring goods across the border?"
Local chambers of commerce across the country and the Retail Council of Canada said Friday that Ottawa should make immediate changes that would help them combat cross-border shopping.
They said Friday the federal government should immediately eliminate the tariffs charged on imported finished goods which, they say, add to the costs that Canadian retailers must deal with when they set consumer prices.
"The government's decision to increase duty exemptions on goods bought in the U.S. is salt in the wounds of retailers in border communities," Diane Brisebois, the Retail Council's president and CEO, said in a statement.
In his announcement, Oliver said the changes would affect a "very small percentage" of the domestic economy.
"We don't see it really having that negative an impact," he said.
"It's a question of being accommodating to travellers and having an equality between rules that apply to Americans and Canadians."
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has previously responded to similar charges by saying the exemptions had not been adjusted for inflation in decades, adding the higher limits would also free up customs officials to focus on security issues.
But BMO Capital Markets economist Douglas Porter suggested in a recent report that the new rules would lead to a spike in the number of cross-border shoppers, which would in turn accelerate the bleeding from a retail sector that already loses between five and 10 per cent of its business to U.S.-based rivals.
"Even at a conservative estimate of five per cent, we are talking over $20 billion a year," Porter said in his report. "If correct, that represents a real drain on domestic retail sales, employment and government revenues -- a drain that looks (likely) to deepen."
Rural broadband would only benefit the rich, says Labour MP Graham Jones - Daily Telegraph
Mr Jones claimed the investment provided poor value for money and would create just 25 jobs.
Speaking in Parliament he also claimed “That £32 million will mean faster internet shopping for millionaires; it will not generate business in rural communities. White middle-class and upper-class areas will get the money and deprived, working-class areas will have money removed from them. It will not provide additional businesses or create jobs. This is just about faster internet shopping for wealthy people.”
Sarah Lee, Head of Policy for the Countryside Alliance, condemned the MP's attitude. "Graham Jones has criminally missed the point of these plans," she said. "In a digital age the need for fast and reliable broadband is just as important as the need for gas, electricity and water. People need to access more services online, especially critical Government services; businesses need the internet for growth; and much of everyday communication now occurs online.
In contrast to Mr Jones views, earlier this year shadow Culture Minister Harriet Harman criticised the Coalition for not doing enough to provide fast broadband to rural areas. "The Government can talk about ultra-fast and super-fast, hyper-fast and mega-fast, all (it) likes but what is happening is the creation of a digital underclass," she claimed.
Edwin Booth, Chairman of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, said: "creating this network could be as important as the construction of the canals and railways was to the Industrial Revolution".
Mr Jones added "I am not against rural broadband per se or denying others but is this our priority for Government funding in austere times? £30m investment would surely be more beneficial in real infrastructure and ensuring businesses in urban are connected at 100mbps as in rival economies."
Mr Jones told the Telegraph that he was in favour of rural broadband, but wanted to see more of it delivered by private sector investment. “My concern is only Lancashire and value for money economic development,” he said. “I don’t know enough to comment about national rural broadband issues. Every area is different.” He claimed £4.7m in local Council Tax was being taken from the most deprived East Lancashire areas to fund the broadband scheme.
Amazon.co.uk Announces Free Shopping App for Windows Phone - HEXUS.net
PRESS RELEASE
Luxembourg - 01 June, 2012 - Amazon.co.uk today announced the release of its latest mobile shopping application, ‘Amazon Mobile App for Windows Phone' which is now available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Designed specifically for Windows Phones, the Amazon Mobile App offers users a fast and convenient way to shop for millions of items from Amazon.co.uk and thousands of Amazon Marketplace sellers wherever they go.
The shopping app includes Amazon's barcode scanning feature which allows customers to use their device camera to scan the barcode of any product to see Amazon pricing, availability information, product details, customer reviews, and purchase securely from Amazon.co.uk.
Windows Phone users can save time by pinning the Amazon barcode scan tile on their phone start screen, enabling them to simply tap the tile to take them straight to the barcode scanner.
"The new Amazon Mobile App for Windows Phone offers customers all of the great features of the Amazon Shopping experience and Windows Phone customers can also benefit from the Amazon barcode scanning tile on their start screen," said Greg Greeley, Vice President EU Retail at Amazon. "The Windows Phone is an increasingly popular choice for many Amazon customers so we're delighted to be able to offer them a bespoke App with this new start screen feature only available for Windows Phone."
With the Amazon Mobile App for Windows Phone, customers can use their existing Amazon.co.uk account to access favourite shopping features wherever they are including:
- View detailed product information
- Read customer reviews
- Share products with friends
- Check product pricing and availability with barcode scanning
- Access personalized recommendations and manage recommendations
- Purchase using Amazon's 1-Click® ordering and Amazon Prime
- Track packages or cancel orders using the Your Account feature
- Access their Wish List
The Amazon Mobile App for Windows Phone is available on Windows Phone as a free download through the Windows Phone Marketplace. For more information visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/windowsphoneapp.
About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk opened its virtual doors in October 1998 and strives to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavours to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.
Amazon.co.uk and other sellers offer millions of new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Baby, Books, Car & Motorbike, Clothing, DIY & Tools, DVD, Electronics & Photo, Grocery, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Jewellery, MP3, Music, Musical Instruments & DJ, Office, PC, Pet Supplies, Shoes, Software, Sports & Leisure, Toys & Games, Video Games and Watches.
The all-new Kindle is the lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes - still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G.Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.co.uk.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business.
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