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Crude oil prices tumble on Dubai news

NEW YORK, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices per barrel ended lower Friday, closing out the short week at $76.05, down $1.91, or 2.4 percent, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The drop was attributed in part to nervous traders reacting to news of a possible $60 billion default by a Dubai conglomerate, MarketWatch.com reported. The per-barrel price tumbled more than 7 percent in intraday trading, but rallied to finish at a 2.2 percent loss.

"Obviously, the markets are being roiled by the Dubai news," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an analyst at MF Global. "It shakes confidence in financial markets and raises the specter of contagion, which could trigger a second wave in the credit crisis."

Natural gas ended up 3 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $5.192 per million British thermal units.

Gasoline lost 3.6 percent to $1.9262 a gallon while December heating oil fell 1.4 percent to $1.9622 a gallon.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline was $2.632 per gallon Friday, down from Thursday's $2.633, AAA said.

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U.S. markets close out Black Friday down

NEW YORK, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. markets finished a short trading week lower Friday as investors reacted to a potential debt crisis in Dubai.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week with a 154.48-point decline, off 1.5 percent, closing at 10,309.92.

The Standard & Poors 500 fell 13.14 points, or 1.72 percent, to 1,091.46. The Nasdaq composite index ended the week at 2,138.49, losing 37.61 points, 1.73 percent.

Stock markets worldwide slid after Dubai said it would hold off repaying $60 billion of debt from its investment company, Dubai World.

The Down dropped 233 points at its trading low Friday.

U.S. traders noted Dubai's main creditors are European banks, not Wall Street firms, The Wall Street Journal reported.

But, "(we) still need to see if there's going to be a domino effect here," with Dubai's spreading credit woes, Kevin Shacknofsky of Alpine Woods Capital Investors told the Journal. "The markets are telling us for now that this is a containable problem, but we're not absolutely certain of that yet."

The New York Stock Exchange's listed volume was 2.36 billion.

The U.S Treasury benchmark 10-year bond rose 17/16 to yield 3.207 percent.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei stock average slid 3.2 percent. In Britain, the FTSE 100 index added 0.99 percent, 51.60, to 5,245.73.

The euro fell to $1.4957, down from $1.5017 Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 86.45 yen from Thursday's 86.63 yen.

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Wal-Mart Canada wins union battle

OTTAWA, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Wal-Mart Canada was within its rights to close a Quebec store after its workers voted to unionize, Canada's Supreme Court ruled Friday.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices said the retailer did not contravene Quebec's labor code by shutting down the four-year-old store in Jonquiere in 2005, the Canwest News Service reported.

Two lower courts in Quebec had already ruled in Wal-Mart's favor, saying a store cannot be forced to remain open against its will, based on Wal-Mart's testimony the store wasn't profitable.

Some 200 employees were laid off after the United Food and Commercial Workers demanded 30 more employees be hired as part of the first collective agreement.

The challenge went to the high court by employees claiming their right to organize a collective bargaining unit was violated under both the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Quebec's labor code, the Globe and Mail said.

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Consumer confidence in Europe up a touch

BRUSSELS, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- The European Commission's Economic and Financial Affairs Office said consumer confidence is up in Europe, but still below historic standards.

The Economic Sentiment Indicator for November rose to 87.9 in the European Union, a gain of 1.9 points, and rose to 88.8, a gain of 2.7 points in the euro area, the office said Friday.

The indicator for the EU and in the countries that use the euro as their currency has risen for eight consecutive months.

Historically, however, the figure is low. The indicator assigns an historic average -- in this case the years 1990-2008 -- a value of 100.