Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Quick Overview

  • The confidence of U.S. consumers fell to its lowest level this year, weighed down by the high cost of gasoline, ABC News and The Washington Post said in a report on Tuesday.

  • Senior White House economist Edward Lazear said that proposals to cut the gasoline tax would take energy policy in the wrong direction by encouraging consumption

  • European manufacturing increased from 56.1 to 56.7 in April, the highest in five years.

  • Manufacturing in the U.K. increased from 51.0 to 54.1 in April.

  • Brazilian sugar exports totaled 758,200 metric tons in April, down 29.8% from the roughly 1.08 million tons exported in the same month last year, according to preliminary figures issued by the Foreign Trade Secretariat Tuesday.

  • Shares in Archer Daniels Midland Co. surged to a new all-time high on the heels of a 29 percent increase in third-quarter earnings, driven by an increase in demand for processed oilseeds and corn byproducts such as ethanol.

  • Concern that mineral-rich Bolivia would extend a nationalization program from oil and gas to other natural resources, like silver, saw investors switching out of mining stocks and into the silver ETF shares."

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