Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.
The announcement just came in from the International Energy Agency. Twenty-eight countries will release 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves over the next month. Half of that will come from the emergency reserves here in the U.S. Oil prices have dropped about 5 percent on the news. In New York trading right now a barrel will cost about $90.
Deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden have reached an “impasse,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Thursday, adding that he will not participate in the meeting of the bipartisan group that had been scheduled for later in the day.
The number of people signing up for new jobless benefits was up by 9,000 last week. That’s more than expected.
More data from the government says fewer people bought new homes last month. Sales were off more than 2 percent.
Saab’s days could be numbered. The Swedish carmaker says it doesn’t have enough money to pay its employees. Production there has already stopped because it can’t pay suppliers either.
Electronics retailer Best Buy is looking to downsize its stores from around 45,000 square feet to 36,000 square feet. That’s because all that space the company uses for DVDs and CDs isn’t necessary anymore.
Airbus says it has signed the largest aircraft order in history –an order for 200 of its fuel-efficient A320neo jets from Asian low-cost carrier AirAsia.
Apparently the 450 million Harry Potter print books that have been sold are not the end of the sales line for author JK Rowling. News this morning that the seven Harry Potter novels will be sold as e-books starting in October.
The House is heading toward what could be a close vote Thursday on legislation to carry out fundamental changes in the way inventors can file for patents.
Ross Perot Junior owns a scant 5 percent of the Dallas Mavericks, but last year sued co-owner Mark Cuban saying he so badly managed the Mavs, it should be put into receivership. Cuban’s attorneys yesterday told the judge to drop the case. And in their four-page court-filing, included a big picture of power forward Dirk Novitzki hoisting the NBA championship trophy they won just a couple of weeks ago.
To St. Louis, where a Facebook campaign has taken off in the last day or so to save a historic architectural landmark. I’m not talking about the famous gateway arch. Thousands of Facebook users have signed up to save a branch of the fast food restaurant Del Taco. It was built in the late 60s and it looks like a flying saucer. And it still serves 99 cent burritos with Del Scorcho sauce. Developers want to tear it down to build a more pedestrian friendly retail space presumably without 99 cent burritos.
You can read the rest of today’s stories from the Marketplace Morning Report here.
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