BusinessBig Oil Choosing Stock Over ExplorationBig Oil Choosing Stock Over ExplorationThe ociated PressEasy oil is gone, gasoline and oil prices have hit unimaginable heights and energy prices are a leading contributor to slowing global growth, so Big Oil must be devoting more and more money to exploration, right? Not so. (July 21)With fuel prices hitting unimaginable heights and the nation’s oil giants preparing to report what are expected to be huge second-quarter profits, you may be asking yourself, “what are they doing with all that money?” According to researchers at Rice University, the bulk of that cash was not spent of exploration, but on stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. Rice’s data show that Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and BP _ spent roughly 55 percent of their operating cash flow last year buying back shares and paying dividends. Meanwhile, the money they spent to find new deposits of fossil fuels has for several years remained relatively flat, with percentages in the mid-single digits.[Notes:SOT: Charles Sheehan, AP Energy Editor][Notes:Anchor Voice]If, as expected, the oil giants report eye-popping second-quarter earnings, those results will almost certainly lead to another public outcry, and perhaps another visit before Congress for the oil executives. ___ ___, The ociated Press.

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Nov

Stocks end week with modest gains

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Investors shrugged off last week’s selloff and bid stock prices higher despite ongoing concerns about the subprime home lending market.

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Nov

Merger talk keeps bulls in charge

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U.S. stocks climbed higher for the second consecutive session, fueled in part by another flurry of private equity takeovers and merger speculation.The Dow rose 61 points to 12,288. The Nasdaq gained 13 points to 2,408. Crude oil prices finished lower.
Conway G. Gittens reports from New York.

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Nov

Stocks drop on inflation worries

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Friday’s session ended with red across the board on new inflation concerns and a drop in oil prices. All of the major US indexes were lower for the week. European indexes posted losses as well because of concerns about the US economy.

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Nov

MoneyWatch (CBS News)

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The government agrees to help struggling homeowners; crude oil prices fall more than a dollar; and tests on more than 1,200 children’s toys yield frightening results. Alison Harmelin reports.

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Nov

Stock Market Prices

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A stock market, or equity market, is a private or public market for the trading of company stock and derivatives of company stock at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.

The size of the world stock market is estimated at about $36.6 trillion US at the beginning of October 2008. The world derivatives market has been estimated at about $480 trillion face or nominal value, 12 times the size of the entire world economy. It must be noted though that the value of the derivatives market, because it is stated in terms of notional values, cannot be directly compared to a stock or a fixed income security, which traditionally refers to an actual value. Many such relatively illiquid securities are valued as marked to model, rather than an actual market price.

The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities a corporation or mutual organization specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together. The stock market in the United States includes the trading of all securities listed on the NYSE, the NASDAQ, the Amex, as well as on the many regional exchanges, e.g. OTCBB and Pink Sheets. European examples of stock exchanges include the London Stock Exchange, the Deutsche Börse and the Paris Bourse, now part of Euronext.

Trading

Participants in the stock market range from small individual stock investors to large hedge fund traders, who can be based anywhere. Their orders usually end up with a professional at a stock exchange, who executes the order.

Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor, by a method known as open outcry. This type of auction is used in stock exchanges and commodity exchanges where traders may enter “verbal” bids and offers simultaneously. The other type of stock exchange is a virtual kind, composed of a network of computers where trades are made electronically via traders.

Actual trades are based on an auction market paradigm where a potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock and a potential seller asks a specific price for the stock. (Buying or selling at market means you will accept any ask price or bid price for the stock, respectively.) When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place on a first come first served basis if there are multiple bidders or askers at a given price.

The purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace (virtual or real). The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the listed securities, facilitating price discovery.

The New York Stock Exchange is a physical exchange, also referred to as a listed exchange — only stocks listed with the exchange may be traded. Orders enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a specialist, who goes to the floor trading post to trade stock. The specialist’s job is to match buy and sell orders using open outcry. If a spread exists, no trade immediately takes place–in this case the specialist should use his/her own resources (money or stock) to close the difference after his/her judged time. Once a trade has been made the details are reported on the “tape” and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Although there is a significant amount of human contact in this process, computers play an important role, especially for so-called “program trading”.

The NASDAQ is a virtual listed exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. However, buyers and sellers are electronically matched. One or more NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask price at which they will always purchase or sell ‘their’ stock.

The Paris Bourse, now part of Euronext, is an order-driven, electronic stock exchange. It was automated in the late 1980s. Prior to the 1980s, it consisted of an open outcry exchange. Stockbrokers met on the trading floor or the Palais Brongniart. In 1986, the CATS trading system was introduced, and the order matching process was fully automated.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market

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Nov

MoneyWatch (CBS News)

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Shoppers are suffering this holiday season. As Alexis Christoforous reports, food and gas prices are up, while the stock market takes a dive.

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Nov

Stocks fizzle as oil hits $100

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Feb 19 – U.S. stocks erased a sharp rally as oil prices closed above $100 a barrel for the first time.The Dow shed 10 points to 12,337. The S&P 500 lost more than a point to 1,348. The Nasdaq lost 15 points to 2,306. Crude oil surged to $100.01 a barrel.