Consumers boosted their spending in May as their incomes grew solidly, an encouraging sign that high gasoline prices haven’t killed people’s appetite to buy. Inflation moderated. It was the second month in a row that consumer spending went up 0.5 percent, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Incomes, the fuel for future spending, rebounded in May, growing 0.4 percent.
Crude oil prices exceed $70 mark
Oil prices settled above the psychologically important $70 a barrel mark Friday for the first time since August 2006 on worries about gasoline supplies in the heart of the summer driving season. Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $1.11 to settle at $70.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $71.06 earlier in the session. Oil last closed above $70 a barrel on Aug. 31.
Wage cut deal secures Delphi jobs
Workers at struggling auto parts giant Delphi Corp.’s largest union have approved a historic contract agreement that cuts wages for many longtime workers but secures thousands of jobs at plants that once were in jeopardy. The ratification comes after two years of sometimes contentious negotiations and averts a threatened strike that would have crippled Delphi’s former parent, General Motors Corp.
China enacts workers-rights law
China enacted a law Friday meant to improve workers’ rights after the communist government took the unprecedented step of seeking input from foreign companies and the Chinese public. The measure, the biggest change in Chinese labor law in more than a decade, was preceded by intense debates, warnings about potential damage to business, and charges from activists that U.S. and other foreign companies were trying to suppress workers’ rights. Approval came two weeks after the discovery by police of children and adults working as slaves at brick kilns.
Farmers plant for huge corn crops
Farmers this year planted the most corn since the waning days of World War II, outpacing already high expectations for the crop, according to a federal report issued Friday. Fueled by high demand and high prices for corn, farmers planted an estimated 92.9 million acres of corn, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. That’s 19 percent more than in 2006 and was well above an earlier government estimate. The record for corn planting was set in 1944, as American farmers responded to a huge demand for the crop in war-torn Europe.
From Herald news services
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