Wall Street had modest losses last week, with the key averages slipping between 0.3 and 0.6 percent. In Friday trading, the Dow was up 57 points to 12,342. The S&P rose 5, while the Nasdaq composite added 4 points.
- World stocks sank today. In early trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.4 percent lower, Germany's DAX slipped 0.7 percent and France's CAC-40 was down 0.9 percent. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.7 percent and South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.1 percent. Wall Street is headed to a lower opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures off 0.5 percent and S&P 500 futures down 0.6 percent.
- Oil prices fell to near $109 a barrel today in Asia as gasoline jumped to average $4 a gallon in six U.S. States and the District of Columbia. Benchmark crude for May delivery was down 62 cents at $109.04 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.55 to settle at $109.66 on Friday.
- Saudi Arabia's oil minister says the global oil market is oversupplied, dampening hopes OPEC will soon boost its output in an effort to bring down prices. Ali Naimi says Saudi Arabia cut daily output to 8.3 million in March from 9.1 million barrels in February because of excess supply. He says output will likely rise again in April.
- An analysis of tax data from 2009 shows that U.S. tax laws are filled with $1.1 trillion in deductions, credits and exemptions. That's an average of about $8,000 per taxpayer. And it shows the biggest breaks are deductions for state and local income taxes, sales and personal property taxes, the child tax credit and the home mortgage interest deduction.
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