Weighing on the downside were materials and energy stocks, as crude-oil prices slipped.
In my lifetime the major part of the energy scene will be crude-oil-based.
It is home to independent crude-oil refiner Western Refining Co. and to Fort Bliss and has a rich history.
Energy shares took an especially heavy hit in Asia after benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures plunged 2.6% in New York trading Thursday.
Crude-oil futures settled at a 2012 low in New York and Europe.
It accounts for 15% of the U.S.'s crude-oil imports, less than half the amount the U.S. imports from Canada, Mexico and Venezuela.
The gasoline-demand data are among several market-moving reports that have come under question in recent years, including crude-oil inventories and natural-gas outputs.
Meanwhile, growing demand from emerging economies has sent crude-oil prices up strongly since prices cratered in 2008 during the worst of the recession.
The inflation numbers reflected the lower crude-oil prices, retail sales were just barely positive, and consumer sentiment was the weakest in over two years.
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Such arguments ignore the fact that the crude-oil market is global: no American firm is selling its crude any lower than the world price.
The family business Charles inherited consisted of an engineering firm, part-interest in a Minnesota refinery, a crude-oil-gathering pipeline in Oklahoma and some cattle ranches.
Gold futures fell slightly, down 30 cents, or 0.02%, to 1, 723 a troy ounce, while crude-oil prices gained 2.24, or 2.3%, to 100.91 a barrel.
It is home to independent crude-oil refiner Western Refining Co.
Crude-oil-future prices rose about 1% on the news of Greenspan's remarks.
The prices firms pay for inputs went up by 2.4% in July alone, thanks mainly to a jump of more than 20% in crude-oil prices.
Consumer sentiment in the overall economy may see some improvement, as the sharply lower crude-oil prices may translate to lower gas prices before the Memorial holiday.
The prices of refined products like diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, might increase much more sharply than crude-oil futures because of the refining belt that runs along the Gulf.
Crude-oil costs are a bigger slice of the prices American consumers pay for petrol: lower sales taxes and fuel duties mean swings in oil markets have a bigger effect on pump prices.
Commodities were in focus once again, as copper and crude-oil prices fell sharply as investors dumped assets across the commodity complex due to broad-based risk aversion and lingering concerns over growth in China.
Unless this week's news prompts a split in the cartel and so a collapse in crude-oil prices (see article), retail-petrol prices in America may not drop dramatically before the end of the summer driving season.
"I thought the firm had a very good shot under Corzine, but clearly he went overboard, " said Mike Fitzpatrick, a 59-year-old former crude-oil trader at MF Global who left shortly after Mr. Corzine's arrival because he didn't want to take more risks.
Chart Analysis : The weekly chart of crude oil shows the powerful rally from the early-October low as crude oil held above the major 50% retracement support.
Extracting the bitumen from the clay and sand and upgrading it into crude oil--by breaking its big hydrocarbon molecules into smaller, less viscous ones--is an expensive, energy-intensive process that consumes 650 cubic feet of natural gas for every barrel.
Two others have exposure to oil futures: iPath Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ) Crude Oil Total Return Index Exchange Traded Note and PowerShares Deutsche Bank (nyse: DB - news - people ) Oil Fund.
Proshares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil shares are currently trading down about 8% on the day.
Proshares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil shares are currently trading off about 2.1% on the day.
It will also impose costly refinery modifications and require and necessitate increased importing of higher quality, non-California crude oil feedstock.
Since it is not practical to have a physically-backed crude oil fund, existing products rely on futures contracts to implement their strategies.
On the negative side, coal lost more than 19 percent, followed by crude oil (-14.1 percent), nickel (-13.6 percent) and lead (-12.3 percent).
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