A time to heal: The surge in shale drilling that has made the U.S. the world’s No. 1 oil producer has started to slow under the weight of a global crude collapse, and that downturn is likely to stick around for a while, BP’s chief U.S. economist told an audience gathered in downtown Houston on Wednesday, FuelFix.com reports. “When we crunch the numbers, it looks like we could be in this for an extended period,” Mark Finley said in response to a question at the breakfast meeting. “For at least a couple of years, we think it’s prudent to re-base operations around the prevailing reality we find ourselves.” Read the full story.
Ring it up: Consumers ramped up spending in May, hitting a six-year high and outpacing income growth in a sign that growing consumer confidence is fueling a pickup in the marketplace. Consumer spending rose 0.9% for the month, while personal income ticked upward 0.5%, according to a report released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Those figures compare to a 0.1% increase in spending in April and a 0.5% uptick in personal income. Economists track consumer spending closely because it accounts for about 70% of economic activity in the U.S. USA Today has the full story.
Hitting the road: Americans will take to the roads in record numbers during the upcoming Independence Day holiday weekend as the improving job market and lower fuel prices spur more people to splurge on getaways, a forecast by AAA shows. About 35.5 million people will drive 50 miles or more from home during the five days ending July 5, up from 35.3 million last year and the most since at least 2000, the Heathrow, Florida-based motoring club tells Bloomberg. A total of 41.9 million Americans will travel using all modes of transportation, the most since 2007. Read the full story.
