other nooz... EU Colonialists -vs- US Capitalists in BananaBowl
Top U.S. and European officials met at a public forum on Friday
to talk about the meaty subject of world trade but carefully avoided the bitter ongoing spat over bananas.
biz.yahoo.com
At the center of the row is the EU's controversial banana regime - a complex set of regulations for managing the import and distribution
of the fruit in its 15 member countries which favors imports from former European colonies.
dailynews.yahoo.com
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Forex market views and key chart levels...
biz.yahoo.com
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The Market Volatility Index (VIX.X) the options market's gauge of investor anxiety, eased to its lowest level in two weeks on Friday as some key stock indexes scaled fresh peaks.
biz.yahoo.com
Larry McMillan, president of options advisory group McMillan Analysis, said this is one of the strongest seasonal periods for the stock
market and the momentum could last through much of next week.
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The Nasdaq Composite Index that includes computer giants Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. has surged an eye-popping 75 percent since October and technical analysts expect that run to continue into spring.
biz.yahoo.com
''The market is still subject to setbacks due to overbought conditions on all charts, but the trend has been resumed on the upside...and
objectives are 2,593 and 2,700,'' said Elaine Yager, senior technical analyst at Herzog, Heine, Geduld.
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The bull market in U.S. stocks could last another two years and
the federal funds rate remain at 4.75 percent for ''as far as the eye can see,'' former Federal Reserve governor Wayne Angell said Friday.
biz.yahoo.com
The Fed should closely watch commodity prices, which will likely foreshadow the end of the U.S. expansion, he said.
''The charts show deflation has ended, but not that inflation has begun,'' he said. ''I am convinced we will see the signal in commodity
prices.''
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The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States fell 26 from last week to stand at 562 as of January 29, and down from 987 a year ago, oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday.
biz.yahoo.com
The weekly rig count reflects the number of rigs exploring for oil and gas, not those producing oil and gas.
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U.S. retail sales of farm tractors, self-propelled combines, farm field machinery and other farm equipment are expected to fall sharply in 1999, the Equipment Manufacturers Institute reported on Friday.
biz.yahoo.com
The survey said U.S. retail sales of all two- and four-wheel-drive farm tractors for 1999 are expected to decline 12.2 percent overall
compared with EMI's July 1998 mid-year outlook, which predicted a 4.4 percent increase. U.S. retail sales for self-propelled combines are expected to decline 15 percent from 1998 levels.
The results were similar for 2000, but begin to look more positive in 2001.
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