Join together: A growing number of small and medium-size banks are merging as shrinking profit margins, tepid loan demand and low interest rates place pressure on their operations, The Washington Post reports. Conditions are unlikely to improve as the Federal Reserve contemplates another round of stimulus measures that could push rates even lower. Community banks also are contending with the added cost of complying with new regulations stemming from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Industry watchers say all of these factors will spur buying activity in the coming quarters. Read the full story here.
Highly combustible: Firefighters are battling a blaze at Venezuela’s biggest oil refinery for a fourth day today, pushing out forecasts for resuming production, Bloomberg reports. Gasoline, meanwhile, was trading near a four-month high in New York this morning. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who faces elections in October, declared three days of mourning for the 48 killed in the refinery accident. There was no structural damage to the processing units at the facility, which is located about 240 miles west of Caracas, and exports haven’t been affected, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez says. Read the full story here.
Elephant in the room: Republicans are eager to showcase Mitt Romney as a man who understands everyday Americans and a leader who can fix the economy, having lined up GOP National Convention speeches today by the woman who knows him best and tough-talking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But with New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast waiting fearfully to see where a massive storm makes landfall, politics has become an awkward enterprise, and no one knows what sort of party the GOP gathering in Tampa, Fla., will turn out to be. The Associated Press has a full rundown of 2012 RNC happenings in the full story here.
