Oil ended down $0.79 today for a final price of $43.75 or 1.77% below Thursday’s closing price. The 1.77% drop was due to mounting concerns over a growing surplus in fuel as summer comes to a close. In addition six oil rigs were added this week by United States energy firms for the third straight weekly increase. This is despite the massive slump in oil prices driven by Saudi Arabia and the United States refusing to cut production as well as Iran’s potential entrance into the marketplace as international sanctions may be lifted.
Gold prices rose above $1,090 again to end at $1,093.30. The brief, 0.37% rise was due to a less than expected United States jobs number.
- United States July Jobs Report:
In July 2015 the United States economy added 215,000 jobs. The majority of the increase came from the retail trade, health care, professional and technical services, and financial services sectors. While this jobs report put the official unemployment rate at 5.3%, a seven year low, it still missed the analyst expectations of 225,000 jobs. With that said, the miss of 10,000 jobs is minimal and shows that the economy is still on track.
The situation of refugees from the Middle East and Africa coming to Greece has been declared “total chaos” by the UN refugee agency UNHCR. With the economic crisis happening in Greece currently they cannot begin to deal with the 50,000 refugees that came to Greece in July of 2015. This is just another nail in the coffin for the Greek government as the rest of Europe has balked at the thought of helping countries like Greece and Italy deal with the humanitarian crisis at the doorsteps of Europe.
- Brazil’s Inflation Crisis:
With electricity costs rising inflation in Brazil has hit a 12-year high of 9.56% and with the International Monetary Fund predicting a 1.5% retraction in the Brazilian economy this year things are not looking very bright for the socialist country. Adding to the countries hardships is the debt reduction plan consisting of cutting government spending and increasing taxes.
