Oil closes above $75 a barrel

Inside Business - 23/04/2006: Oil closes above $75 a barrel: "JAYNE EDWARDS: It was a week of contrasts on global markets, as climbing oil prices helped to temper optimism about an end to interest rate rises. Oil closed the week in New York above $75 a barrel, with global political tensions and worries of a looming petrol supply crunch fuelling the market. But share markets rallied on the release of minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting, showing an end to interest rate rises may be in sight. In company results, Google jumped on another great earnings report, while ebay, Dell and Intel lost ground. And it was a rare good week for General Motors, which leapt by 10 per cent after reporting reduced losses, while over at Ford the company posted a blowout in its losses and its shares slumped by 8 per cent. On Friday, Wall Street was mixed. The Dow inched up to a 6-year high. The broader S&P500 was steady, and the Nasdaq slid by 20. Over the week, the US gained 1.7 per cent. London's FTSE rose by exactly the same margin, Frankfurt's DAX jumped by 3 per cent, Tokyo's Nikkei added 1 per cent and our local market also rallied. For more, here's Marcus Padley from Tolhurst.
MARCUS PADLEY, TOLHURST: We're in the middle of three short trading weeks on the trot at the moment. With the holidays, you would think things would quieten down, but they haven't. The stock market's had a good week, the resources sector's had a great week. The stock market's now up 22 per cent this financial year and a quarter of that performance has been due to one stock on its own, the biggest stock in the market, BHP, which is now up 65 per cent this financial year. Back to this week, all the metal prices were up. The gold price hit a 25-year high and the oil price hit an all-time high. And the resources sector got a boost from the Chin"