Tag: news at noon

Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.

Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.

BP shares were up 2 percent at 430 pence at 5:44 a.m. ET, having earlier hit 434.5 pence, a level last seen in early June, on day 108 of an environmental disaster that has ravaged communities and ecosystems along the Gulf coast, killed sea creatures and coastal birds and cost Chief Executive Tony Hayward his job.

After several setbacks in efforts to plug the deep-sea well, which was damaged by an explosion at a rig on April 20, BP said on Wednesday that heavy drilling mud injected into it the previous day was stemming the flow of crude.

“The MC252 well appears to have reached a static condition — a significant milestone,” BP said in a statement, adding that the deepwater well’s pressure was now being controlled by the heavy drilling mud pumped in on Tuesday.

The next step in the process, called “static kill”, is to pump in cement behind the mud as a seal, but BP said further monitoring was required to see if more mud should be pumped in first.

U.S. securities regulators are investigating potential insider trading in shares of BP, including by BP employees, two sources familiar with the probe told Reuters.

Analysts said the inquiry showed how the full weight of the government was being brought to bear on BP, which took a $32.2 billion charge related to the spill in its results last week.

The visit comes as the oil giant prepares to plug its blown out Gulf of Mexico well for good on Monday.

When he left Russia in 2008, Dudley said he had been forced out under a campaign of harassment by billionaire partners in the TNK-BP joint venture of which he was CEO.

The results follow the strong earnings reports from the world’s largest oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) on Thursday.

Chevron’s second-quarter net income jumped to $5.4. billion, or $2.70 per share, from $1.75 billion, or 87 cents per share, a year before. Revenue rose to $53 billion.

Conditions in the refining sector have improved in recent months, with business and consumer demand for diesel and gasoline rebounding.

Crude oil prices have also climbed about 30 percent from a year ago, another factor that has contributed to higher profits in the second quarter for oil companies.

Two Americans were among the victims, a U.S. embassy spokesman told Reuters. He had no further details.

“There are no survivors. We believe all are dead. We are recovering the remains of the dead bodies from the wreckage,” Imtiaz Elahi, chairman of the state-run Capital Development Authority, a city municipal body.

“I get disgusted every time I hear her speak. It’s like she’s sitting in some ivory tower, not understanding the ramifications of anything she says,” said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors. “Any person you put in that role really ought to have some industry experience.”

Warren, a Harvard law professor and outspoken consumer rights advocate, is currently a top monitor of the government’s $700 billion bailout of the financial system.

Bob Dudley, an American who is managing the response operation to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is poised to get the top job in a move that could soften U.S.-led attacks on the British oil major, sources close to the company say.

Shares in BP, which has lost 40 percent of its market capitalization since the blast that caused the spill, rose 2.5 percent to 408.26 pence by 6:22 a.m. ET.

He has just persuaded Oakland to legalize industrial-sized marijuana farms, touting a study that promised millions in city taxes and hundreds of high-paying union jobs.

The long-struggling city, which has failed spectacularly to capitalize on the high-tech boom, could be the Silicon Valley of pot, Wilcox told the City Council this week before its historic vote to grant four permits for urban, industrial-size marijuana farms.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 464,000 in the week ended July 17, the Labor Department said on Thursday, more than erasing a decline in the prior week.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 445,000 from the previously reported 429,000 in the July 10 week, which was revised slightly down to 427,000 in Thursday’s report.