Markets rebound Thursday
NEW YORK, May 12 (UPI) -- U.S. stock markets reversed direction Thursday afternoon, rebounding from early losses as oil prices held relatively even on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crude oil prices added 61 cents in Thursday's trading with June delivery West Texas Intermediate crude hitting $98.82 per barrel. The market has been volatile this month, however, with oil losing $15.27 or 13.4 percent from the April 29 peak of $113.93 per barrel.
Prices have fallen on concern that the price of motor grade gasoline, nearing a national average of $4 per gallon, could put a significant crimp in demand.
The Labor Department said Thursday the producer price index rose 0.8 percent in April. China said it would tighten restrictions for lending, which is likely to slow demand further.
In a positive weekly report, the Labor Department said first-time unemployment benefit claims fell by 44,000 to 434,000 in the week ending May 7.
By close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average, down nearly 50 points in the early going, added 0.52 percent or 65.89 points, to 12,695.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.49 percent, 6.57 points, to 1,348.65. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.63 percent, 17.98, to 2,863.04.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,898 stocks advanced and 1,130 declined on a volume of 3.7 billion shares traded.
The 10-year treasury note lost 10/32 to yield 3.226 percent.
The euro rose to $1.4243 from Wednesday's $1.4201. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 80.96 yen from Wednesday's 81.03 yen.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index lost 1.5 percent, 147.61, to 9,716.65.
In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 0.52 percent, 31.04, to 5,944.96.
France takes a step to ban 'fracking'
PARIS, May 12 (UPI) -- The French National Assembly approved legislation Thursday that would ban the environmentally questionable natural gas extraction process known as fracking.
The Senate must still approve the measure for it to become law.
The extraction method involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into shale deposits underground to force the rock to break apart, allowing gas to be released.
France24 reported Thursday protesters gathered outside Parliament as the vote was taken.
Some studies have shown underground water near hydraulic rock fracturing sites have become contaminated with methane. A documentary on the subject called "Gasland" showed methane leaks have caused illnesses and even killed cattle in area where fracking techniques have been used.
The ban in France was proposed by the UMP party to appease angry citizens who had discovered the government had been issuing fracking permits to energy firms, some of them covering parts of the country's most scenic regions.
Danielle Mitterrand, the widow of former Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, was one of those campaigning for a ban on the gas production process.
"We have to eradicate the use of shale gas, we must leave our Earth alone," Mitterrand said before the vote was taken.
While the ban has become a populist cause, the size of France's gas reserves in shale formations are unknown. A European Center for Energy and Resources Security study released last week estimated Europe could have its energy demands covered for 60 years if processes like fracking were allowed.
Delayed foreclosures skew housing data
IRVINE, Calif., May 12 (UPI) -- Foreclosure activity in the United States fell for the seventh consecutive month in April, but the figure is misleading, a market research firm said.
Online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac said foreclosure activity, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, dropped to a 40-month low on an annual basis in April. Foreclosures were 9 percent from March and 34 percent from April 2010.
In April, one out of every 593 U.S. housing units was involved in foreclosure activity.
RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said the slowdown in foreclosures "Continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure."
Saccacio said about 3.7 million properties "are in [a] seriously delinquent stage," but that nationwide, foreclosures completed in the first quarter of the year took an average of 400 days from the first default notice. In the first quarter of 2010, completed foreclosures took 340 days from the date of the original default notice.
Before the financial crisis hit in 2007, first-quarter foreclosures took an average of 151 days to complete, the firm said.
Mississippi overflow could cost billions
NEW ORLEANS, May 12 (UPI) -- Mississippi River flooding this spring is likely to affect crops in at least five U.S. states, as well as have a heavy impact on local casinos, experts said.
Much of the region across Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Louisiana hit by the floods is land devoted to corn, cotton, wheat, soybeans, rice and even catfish farming, The Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday.
Farmers often have crop insurance, but thousands of submerge acres creates the potential of affecting food prices -- although not as much as the equivalent amount of acres underwater in the Corn Belt, said Mississippi State University agricultural economist John Michael Riley.
"The impacts are pretty large," he said. "It's just not as much land devoted to crops as, say, the Corn Belt."
Economist Sohini Chowdhury at Moody's Analytics said revenue from riverboat casinos could fall sharply, putting 13,000 people out of work and onto unemployment rolls. Mississippi, meanwhile, could lose much of the $14 million in tax revenues it normally collects each month from riverboat gambling.
Economists are also concerned about a disruption oil refinery businesses and in barge transportation on the big river, the newspaper said.
Monetary estimates are considered incomplete, but the cost of the floods could wind up in the billions of dollars, experts said.
