News You Can Use for Monday: Soaring Crude and Surging Gold

CRUDE OIL

And yet prices keep going higher …

Angola is scheduled to start shipping a new blend of crude oil in July, boosting production by about 90,000 barrels a day. Iraqi oil production rose to more than 2.5 million barrels a day last week, the highest this year. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has said it will raise daily output by 300,000 barrels a day to 9.45 million barrels next month after requests from customers.

Can't Find Enough Oil Is Lament of BP, Exxon, Shell With Record Investment Never have so many oil and gas companies spent so much to produce so little.

Saudi Arabia's Oil Production Increase Is Unjustified, OPEC Members Say Saudi Arabia's decision to increase oil output is unjustified, according to fellow OPEC members Iran, Iraq, Libya and Qatar, who blame record prices on a weakening U.S. dollar rather than a shortage of supply.

Diesel Prices Soar Ahead of Olympics As with so many commodities, China is playing a major role in the global diesel boom. China imported 520,000 metric tons of diesel in April, up from 30,413 metric tons a year earlier, according to preliminary Chinese government data. Diesel imports for the first four months of the year rose more than eightfold. These volumes are expected to rise further in May and June as China's state-controlled oil companies build up stocks ahead of the Olympics. China is hoarding diesel and other distillates in case the country needs to rely on its backup generators to smooth out hiccups in its unreliable power grid.

Hess Reserves May Double on Field Near Brazil's Tupi, Carioca; Stock Jumps Hess Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. oil company, may double its reserves on a $36 million investment made seven years ago.

PRECIOUS METALS

Gold Leads Precious Metals Higher as Commodity Surge Sparks Hedging Demand Gold led precious metals higher in London on speculation rising commodity prices will spur demand from investors as a hedge against inflation.

URANIUM

Paladin Energy Rise in Sydney on Speculation Cameco May Make Takeover Bid Paladin Energy Ltd., the Australian producer of uranium in Namibia, rose the most in three months in Sydney trading amid speculation a recent decline in its share price makes it more likely to attract a takeover offer.

US ECONOMY

Banks Hide $35 Billion in Writedowns From Income Statements, Filings Show Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge in their income statements at least $35 billion of additional writedowns included in their balance sheets, regulatory filings show.

Oil Producers Mask Decade's Worst S&P 500 Profit Drop Take away Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips and profits at U.S. companies are the worst in at least a decade …Energy companies in the S&P 500 reported an average 25.9 percent gain in first-quarter profit, the biggest of the index's 10 industry groups, data compiled by Bloomberg show. For the broader market, earnings declined by 18.3 percent, based on the 441 companies in the S&P 500 that already announced results.

ASIA

India's Export Growth May Have Accelerated to 30% in April, Express Says India's export growth may have accelerated to 30 percent in April from 19.5 percent a year earlier, the Indian Express reported, citing officials at the commerce department it didn't name.

AGRICULTURE

Dairy Co-Op Faces Price Probe Federal regulators are investigating allegations that the nation's largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America, has manipulated milk and cheese prices, and are separately reviewing a secret transfer of cash to a former director of the organization.

Australian Grain Growers Get Sufficient Rain Needed to Sow Winter Crops Grain growing regions of Australia, once the world's second-largest wheat exporter, have likely received enough rain to sow this year's crop, keeping the nation on course to almost double output after its worst-ever drought.

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