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NYMEX crude close to record high ahead of U.S. data
Tokyo: U.S. crude oil futures on Wednesday were holding above $63 a barrel ahead of U.S. weekly oil data and amid a spate of refinery troubles and lingering security concerns in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, the contract settled at $63.07, down 87 cents, or 1.4 percent, after slipping to as low as $63. The price hit a record $64.27 a barrel on Tuesday.

Support was placed at Tuesday's low. Resistance was at $65.

In London on Tuesday, Brent crude for September delivery settled down 72 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $61.98 a barrel after setting a new high of $63.06.

A nuclear stand-off with Iran and the threat of Islamic militant attacks in Saudi Arabia were underpinning prices. However, oil futures were expected to trade in a tight range ahead of the release of U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog is holding an emergency meeting this week after Iran, OPEC's second-biggest producer, restarted work at a uranium conversion plant, defying the European Union and running the risk of U.N. sanctions.

In Saudi Arabia, OPEC's kingpin and the world's largest oil producer, a security threat forced U.S. missions to shut temporarily.
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Bush: Energy, health care costs weigh on economy
Texas, USA: President George W. Bush said rising costs for health care and energy pose the biggest threat to an economy that's otherwise on solid footing.

"The economy of the United States is strong and the foundation for sustained growth is in place,'' Bush said before meeting with his economic advisers today at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "There are still some challenges.''

This year U.S. gross domestic product has been expanding at least twice as fast any other G-7 industrial country, except Canada. The president will be using these figures to bolster the case for an overhaul of the Social Security program and revising the income tax code, as well as measures to stem health care costs.

National polls however show a majority of the U.S. public disapproves of the way the president is handing the economy and trying to assuage that concern, Treasury Secretary John Snow said yesterday that one of the administration's goals is to spread the benefits of economic growth to more Americans.

White House Counselor Dan Bartlett said that while the White House is pleased with continuing growth of the U.S. economy, the president is concerned that benefits haven't been shared equally by working and middle-class people.

The U.S. economy, the world's largest, grew at a 3.4 percent annual pace from April through June, the ninth straight quarter that growth exceeded 3 percent, the Commerce Department said last month. Growth hasn't surpassed 3 percent in as many quarters since January 1983 through March 1986, when Ronald Reagan was president. This quarter, the U.S. will grow at a 4.1 percent annual rate, the most since the first three months of 2004, according to the median estimate of 66 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

While the economy accelerates, public opinion about Bush's handling of it is declining, a recent poll showed. Fifty-six percent of respondents in a survey of 1,000 adults said they disapprove of the president's leadership on the economy, up from 51 percent in January, according to an Aug. 1-3 Associated Press- Ipsos poll.
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