Energy Prices Affecting Consumers, Reports Show

[BurtWorm]

No shit.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/business/worldbusiness/12cnd-trade.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print


May 12, 2006

By JEREMY W. PETERS and VIKAS BAJAJ

High oil and gasoline prices appear to be deflating the optimism American consumers exhibited at the start of the year and may be starting to depress demand for energy, according to several reports released today.

The University of Michigan's consumer confidence index fell to its lowest level since after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast last summer and sent gasoline prices soaring. It was the second straight monthly drop for the index.

In other reports, the International Energy Agency lowered its forecast for growth in global oil demand, citing rising prices. And the Commerce Department said the nation's trade deficit narrowed as the country spent less on petroleum imports and exported more raw materials and industrial equipment.

Stocks and bonds fell for the second day in a row after the report came out. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index fell 0.8 percent, to 1,295.11 points, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves in the opposite direction of the price, rose to 5.18 percent today from 5.15 percent late Thursday evening.

Gasoline prices have topped $3 a gallon in many parts of the country in the last month as oil prices have risen on concerns about a nuclear standoff with Iran and supply disruptions in Nigeria.

[phantom power]

1. Imagine that, 3-1 still equals 2.

[indepat]

2. But, but, but, inflation is under control and $3 gasoline and $15 natural

gas this past winter do not/did not impact the typical American family a whit.