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Oil prices fall more than $1 a barrel (Finance, 6 articles)
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Other commodities traded mixed, with crude oil briefly rising above $145 for the first time and gold, silver and copper futures falling. Light, sweet crude for August delivery was little changed, down 3 cents at $145.26 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midday in Singapore. Crude futures rose to $145.85, a record high, in New York on Thursday before settling at a record finish of $145.29 a barrel. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi said Thursday in Madrid that the world's biggest oil exporter had no immediate plans to boost crude output because there was no need to do so. Suggestions by Saudi Arabia's oil minister that the world's biggest oil exporter doesn't plan to boost production had helped bolster prices earlier in the session. Oil prices shot to a new record above $144 a barrel Wednesday as the government reported a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. supplies and the threat of conflict with Iran weighed on traders' minds. The latest spike means a barrel of crude has gone up by about half since the end of last year, when oil was going for $96 a barrel.
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Other stories about oil, Prices and futures:
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Dollar's weakness may last for decade, bond fund manager says (Finance, 4 articles)
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According to data obtained by The Post, the fund's flagship fund Contrarian Capital, in the fourth quarter of 2007, shrank to around $4.2 billion from about $4.9 billion as a result of redemptions. The $355 million Merk Hard Currency Fund holds no assets pegged to the dollar, which declined to a record low in April as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to prevent subprime-related losses from stalling the economy. That helped Merk's fund climb 11 percent in the past three years, the most of 45 rivals tracked by Morningstar in Chicago.
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BCE takeover is a go, telecom company says (Finance, 4 articles)
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The deal, the largest leveraged buyout to date, was originally scheduled to close on Monday but had gotten mired in response to bankers' concerns and legal issues. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press) The decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to allow the takeover of BCE Inc. cleared a huge hurdle for the biggest deal in Canadian history and the largest leveraged buyout on record. In an announcement that was in stark contract to news of buyouts that have crumbled in the United States, the Canadian telecom giant said it expected its going-private deal to close by December 11.
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Treasury prices mixed as rate hike seems uncertain (Finance, 4 articles)
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The Institute for Supply Management said its index of service sector activity fell to 48.2 from 51.7 in May; the reading touched off more misgivings about the well-being of the economy. The look at the service sector followed a largely as-expected report from the Labor Department, which said the nation's unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent last month. Normally, a trend toward lower or even stable rates would send the bond market higher, because rates and prices move in opposite directions.
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NBC Universal reaches deal to buy Weather Channel from Landmark (Finance, 6 articles)
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General Electric's NBC Universal and Bain Capital and Blackstone, the private equity groups, are to buy The Weather Channel, one of the largest cable channels in the United States still in private hands. The sale comes despite a slowdown in deal activity, particularly among private equity groups, as the credit crunch shows little sign of abating. An investor group led by NBC Universal and two private equity firms clinched a deal for the Weather Channel on Sunday after three weeks of negotiations.
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blaster@cs.columbia.edu
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