WELLCOME to SUPERMAXIPTP.com
24 Hour Gold Chart in USD
Oil falls below $61 a barrel in Asia
OCT. 3 5:38 A.M. ET Oil prices fell in Asian trading Tuesday after losing nearly $2 a barrel in the previous session amid easing concerns about the possibility of more production cuts by OPEC members.
The contract dropped 3 percent overnight in New York as traders discounted threats of output cuts and focused on high U.S. oil product inventories.
Despite reduced refinery runs, traders were expecting to see a build in U.S. gasoline and distillate stocks in weekly petroleum supply data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery dropped 11 cents to $60.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.88 Monday to settle at $61.03 a barrel.
November Brent crude at London's ICE Futures exchange fell 24 cents to $60.21 a barrel.
Heating oil prices fell 0.68 cent to $1.695 a gallon while gasoline futures rose marginally to $1.5092 a gallon. Natural gas prices dropped 10.8 cents to $5.535 per 1,000 cubic feet.
On Friday, Venezuela said it would reduce oil output by 50,000 barrels a day to try to stem the recent fall in crude prices. Nigeria on Saturday said it was cutting oil exports by 5 percent, which the state-owned oil company described as a routine seasonal reduction.
But Fimat USA broker Mike Fitzpatrick in a research note the two countries' "planned cutbacks would have little impact on prices unless larger producers in the cartel also joined in the move."
In its weekly petroleum supply snapshot, the U.S. Energy Department is expected to report that gasoline inventories rose an average of 1.2 million barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts. Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, were expected to grow 1.3 million barrels.
Crude stocks were likely to fall for the fifth straight week, by an average of 700,000 barrels, the survey predicted.
World Bank loans Philippines $410M
OCT. 3 3:50 A.M. ET The Philippines on Tuesday signed three loans worth US$410 million (euro323 million) with the World Bank, the country's biggest assistance package from the multilateral agency since the late 1990s.
The World Bank, whose stated goal is to reduce poverty, said the loans will help finance the central government's basic education and health reform programs as well as state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines' financing package for local government units.
The US$200 million (euro157 million) loan for basic education, payable over 20 years and with an 8-year grace period, seeks to strengthen school management and improve teaching effectiveness.
The US$110 million (euro87 million) loan for the health sector, also with the same terms, will provide health insurance for indigents as well as improve health service delivery for disease prevention and regulate pharmaceuticals, the bank said.
The remaining US$100 million (euro78 million) will be provided to the Landbank for financing local government efforts to improve public service, infrastructure and social services.
The World Bank noted recently that while the Philippines had been acclaimed as one of the most highly educated countries, national and international tests in recent years have shown that the quality of education was slowly eroding.
