Business news with words department+fell+previous. 12 news.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Inventories at U.S. businesses rose 0.1% in October, below expectations and slower than the 0.7% increase in sales, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The inventory-to-sales ratio, an indication of demand, fell to 1.26 in October from 1.27 in the previous month. This is the lowest inventory-to-sales ratio since July. Economists had been expecting the nation's inventories to rise 0.3% in October. A new piece of data in the report was the 0.4% increase in October retail inventories, which follows a 0.1% gain in September.

OIL futures retreated yesterday, giving back much of the previous session's big gain after the government's November jobs report was not as robust as some traders had hoped. The Labor Department report "wasn't a blockbuster number that would keep feeding the oil bull," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp, in Chicago. The report showed employers added 94,000 jobs to their payrolls in November following October's 170,000 gain. The data quashed the hopes of some oil investors that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by a half percent instead of the more widely expected quarter percent when it meets Tuesday, Flynn said. Interest rate cuts tend to weaken the dollar against other currencies. Oil futures offer a hedge against a weak dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling. Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell US$1.95 to settle at US$88.28 a barrel on the New

CRUDE oil futures closed down in choppy trading yesterday, failing to breach US$100 a barrel after the government reported that crude oil inventories at a key Midwest oil terminal rose for the first time in weeks. The news helped offset the market impact of an overall drop in crude oil stocks. Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell 74 cents to settle at US$97.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Stocks of distillates, including heating oil, also dropped more than expected last week, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported. That could mean more bad news for heating oil customers already expecting costs to rise 22 percent this winter. Heating oil futures fell 0.27 cent to settle at US$2.6874 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier hitting US$2.7154, a new record. Crude prices -- which rose as high as US$99.29 on the New York Mercantile Exchange earlier Wednesday and broke the previous intraday record of US$98.62

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- First-time seasonally adjusted claims for state unemployment benefits fell in the latest week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The number of initial claims in the week ending Nov. 17 fell 11,000 to 330,000. Wall Street economists had expected claims to hit 330,000. Jobless claims in the previous week were revised to 341,000, compared with the initial estimate of a rise of 20,000 to 339,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial claims fell 750 to 329,750. Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits increased 7,000 to 2.57 million in the week ending Nov. 10. The four-week seasonally adjusted moving average of continuing claims rose 10,750 to 2.57 million.

Net foreign acquisition of long-maturity U.S. securities totaled $5.8 billion in September, recovering from record sales the previous month, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report released Friday.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - First-time claims for state unemployment benefits jumped in the latest week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The number of initial claims in the week ending Nov 10 rose 20,000 to 339,000. It's the highest level since the week ended Oct. 13. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists was for claims to rise to 325,000. A spokesman for the Labor Department said there were no special factors but anecdotal evidence suggested that the strike by Hollywood writers may have impacted claims. Jobless claims in the previous week were revised to a decrease of 10,000 to 319,000 compared with the initial estimate of a fall of 13,000 to 317,000. The four-week average of initial claims remained steady at 330,000. Meanwhile, the number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits fell 7,000 to 2.57 million in the week ending Nov. 3. The four-week moving average of continuing claims rose 11,000 to 2.56 million.

CORN fell the most last week on speculation that higher supplies in China, the world's largest consumer of the grain, will cut demand for imports. China will produce 145 million metric tons of corn this season, up from 143 million estimated in October, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report on Friday. That would push the country's reserves to 28.1 million tons before the next harvest, up from 25.7 million estimated a month ago. Still, the stocks would 14 percent off from the previous year, Bloomberg News said. "The trade is unlikely to think that the Chinese are going to import corn anytime soon," said Mike Zuzolo, president of Risk Management Commodities Inc in Lafayette, Indiana. Speculation that China would become a net importer of corn for the first time in 12 years helped push corn prices up 12 percent in the past two months, he said. Corn futures for December delivery fell 2.75 cents, or 0.7 percent, to US$3.8675 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade,

ENERGY futures fell yesterday as traders expecting a weakening of demand in the coming months cashed in profits from the previous session's rally. While an encouraging employment report suggested the economy is weathering the problems affecting the subprime mortgage industry, many energy traders and analysts question whether demand for oil and petroleum products will be strong enough in the fourth quarter to support US$80 a barrel oil. Others argue that demand for oil will increase as home heating season progresses. While crude inventories have risen for two straight weeks, supplies of gasoline and distillates including heating oil fell last week. Investors betting demand will tighten in the fourth quarter drove oil prices US$1.50 higher on Thursday. Yesterday, light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 22 cents to settle at US$81.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures ended the week down 44 cents a barrel, or 0.5 percent. Trading yesterday was volatile, with prices alternately rallying and falling. "There's profit-taking going on after yesterday's rally," said Addison Armstrong, an analyst with TFS Energy Futures LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. The quick resolution of many of Thursday's West Coast refinery outages also pressured prices yesterday. November gasoline fell 0.29 cent to settle at US$2.0493 a gallon on the Nymex, ending the week down 1.9 cents, or 0.9 percent. Heating oil futures fell 0.78 cent to settle at US$2.2235 a gallon. Both contracts surged more than 5 cents on Thursday. Natural gas for November delivery fell 33.9 cents to settle at US$7.073 per 1,000 cubic feet. Forecasters see little chance that a series of storms strung from the Gulf of Mexico to the central Atlantic will develop into tropical storms that could threaten critical gas and oil infrastructure. In London, November Brent crude fell 7 cents to settle at US$78.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Oil prices have been volatile in recent days as investors have battled over whether demand will grow or weaken in the fourth quarter. "It's a stalemate right now," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "People really don't know what the next move will be." Energy Department data suggests demand for gasoline is falling, and many analysts think that's a function of this year's record gas prices. But others argue that falling refinery activity and heating oil inventories sugg

OIL prices fell today in Asia, extending a decline from the previous session that came after an unexpected increase in US crude oil inventories. Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 28 cents to US$79.66 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The Nymex crude contract fell 11 cents to settle at US$79.94 a barrel in yesterday's floor session. Crude oil futures have fallen four straight days after trading at near record levels last week. The weekly inventory report from the US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration was mixed, analysts said. Crude oil supplies unexpectedly rose in the week ended Sept. 28. Gasoline and distillate inventories unexpectedly fell. And while the drop in gasoline supplies is supportive, demand for the fuel is falling, and that will pressure gasoline prices and crude futures down the road, analysts said. The EIA said in its report that crude supplies rose 1.2 million barrels last week. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had predicted that inventories fell 400,000 barrels. One million barrels of that increase were on the West Coast, the EIA said. Oil and gas infrastructure there is isolated from the rest of the country, though, and that might mean shortages elsewhere would support prices. Gasoline inventories fell 100,000 barrels last week, while supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell 1.2 million barrels. Analysts had expected gasoline inventories to grow 400,000 barrels, and distillate supplies to increase 700,000 barrels. Refinery utilization rose by 0.6 percentage points to 87.5 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected an 0.4 percentage point increase. Oil's true value is closer to US$65 a barrel, said Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc in New York, instead of at the near US$80 a barrel or higher range it has been trading. Many analysts feel oil prices have been driven up by speculative buying, and they argue that the market's underlying supply and demand fundamentals do not support the record prices of recent weeks. However, while many analysts expect oil prices to begin a seasonal decline into winter, few are willing to predict when that slide will begin. Oil prices normally drop off every year in the period between the northern summer driving season and the US and European winter. November Brent crude fell 23 cents to US$76.95 a barrel on the ICE futures

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level since early May in the latest week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The number of initial claims in the week ending September 22 fell 15,000 to 298,000. It's the lowest level since the week ended May 12. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists was for claims to rise 9,000 to 320,000. Claims in the previous week were revised to an decrease of 7,000 to 313,000 compared with the initial estimate of a fall of 9,000 to 311,000. The four-week average of initial claims fell 9,750 to 311,500. Meanwhile, the number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits rose 11,000 to 2.55 million in the week ending September 15. The four-week moving average of continuing claims fell 5,500 to 2.57 million.

WASHINGTON The number of laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in seven weeks, an unexpected sign of improvement for the jobs market. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications for unemployment benefits totaled 311,000 last week, a drop of 9,000 from the previous week. It marked the lowest level for jobless claims since July 28. The decline came as a surprise for economists who had been forecasting a rise in claims of around 6,000.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. wholesalers' inventories rose by 0.2% in July, climbing at a slower pace than the previous month as automotive, petroleum and other stockpiles fell, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Sales at the wholesale level rose by 0.1%. Wholesale sales of petroleum outpaced inventories in July, rising by 1.5%. Inventories of petroleum dropped by 0.1% in July. In the past year, total wholesale inventories are up 5.5%. Sales are up 7.2%.