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Oil Gyrates, but Hits New Record

NEW YORK -- Oil prices jumped to a new record above $106 Friday but extended their recent pattern of choppy trading after a weak jobs report convinced many traders that the Federal Reserve's interest rate-cutting campaign will continue, according to the Associated Press.

Employers cut 63,000 jobs in February, the biggest drop in five years, the Labor Department said Friday. Investors can react to such news in one of two ways: by selling on the prospect that the economy, and demand for oil, is cooling, or by buying on a conviction that bad economic data makes it more likely the Fed will cut rates.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 1:27 PM to Crude oil market | Permalink | Comments 0

Volvo Chief Sees a Plus in Shrinking Done by Ford

GENEVA — For Volvo, the Swedish maker of safe, sturdy cars, life is getting lonely, according to The New York Times.

Its aristocratic English cousins in the Ford Motor Company family, Jaguar and Land Rover, are in the final stages of being sold to Tata Motors of India, leaving Volvo as Ford’s only European luxury brand.

It does not help that Ford hemmed and hawed for months over whether to sell Volvo — BMW was a rumored buyer — before deciding in November to hold on to the 81-year-old company.

Now, however, Volvo sees a silver lining in being left behind. With Jaguar and Land Rover no longer competing for Ford’s money and attention, the Volvo chief executive, Fredrik Arp, says his company will be able to get more out of its financially stressed parent.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:02 AM to Ford , Volvo | Permalink | Comments 0