Taking inventory: Winter’s end and a stronger-than-expected first seasonal build in natural gas inventories sent the benchmark price of natural gas down sharply in early trading today. The Energy Department reports that natural gas in U.S. storage rose by 12 billion cubic feet to 1.48 trillion cubic feet, the first weekly gain in inventories posted since the weather turned cold last year. As FuelFix.com reports, stores of gas remain about 575 billion cubic feet lower than last year and about 194 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1.67 trillion cubic feet.
Almost on the same page: Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the House have found something in common. Many have issues with the Obama administration’s new regulations requiring companies that drill for oil and natural gas to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Republicans say the new regulations, announced last week, will delay new drilling projects and take marginal lands out of production. Democratic lawmakers say the regulations are so mild that they won’t change current operating standards. The Associated Press has the full story.
Higher and higher: For most people, buying a home is no cheap venture. And as Bloomberg reports, that’s especially the case when the growth in U.S. home prices is beating wage increases 13 to 1. Wages climbed by 1.3% from the second quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2014, compared to a 17% increase in home prices around that time, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. The real-estate data provider used the Labor Department’s weekly earnings data to measure wage growth, while home prices were derived from sales-deed data in December 2014 and compared to December 2012 on the hypothesis that a change in average wages would take at least six months to affect home prices. Read the full story.
