f-h Oni BW & Friends-TTT, Mittwoch 12.05.2004

In meinen Augen schlimmer als 0,5% ZE
DALLAS (CBS.MW) -- Oil futures jumped more than 70 cents at Wednesday's close after the Energy Department and the American Petroleum Institute reported significant declines in gasoline inventories for the week ended May 7, and one report showed a fall in crude stocks, bucking expectations.
Crude futures closed at a 13-year high of $40.77, up 71 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange after reaching an intraday high of $40.92.

The API said gasoline stocks fell by 1.6 million barrels and the Energy Department reported a 1.5 million barrel decline. June gasoline soared by 5.12 cents to close an at all-time high of $1.373 per gallon, and June heating oil climbed 2.34 cents to close at $1.0392 per gallon.

John Person, who writes the Bottom Line market newsletter, predicted that crude would eclipse $41.15 this week, while gasoline could test $1.38 on the latest supply news.

The Energy Department reported a 1.1 million barrel increase in crude supplies, while the API said crude stocks fell by 2.1 million barrels. Distillate inventories, according to the API, were up 968,000 barrels, while the Energy Department reported a build of 300,000 barrels.

"This is pouring salt into an open wound," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Alaron.com.  Flynn believes $40 is the new norm. "We really needed to see gasoline build substantially to get oil below $40. What this report confirmed is that this is really a demand-driven rally, and we should see prices continue to rise."

Crude closed above $40 per barrel Tuesday for the first time in over 13 years as expectations for U.S. gasoline demand and production concerns outweighed the impact of Saudi Arabia's call for an increase in OPEC output.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Microsoft and business applications leader SAP on Wednesday announced a plan to increase integration between their products, a move that could affect third-party companies that specialize in tying together such software.

The agreement centers on key development software initiatives for both companies -- Microsoft's .Net software and SAP's NetWeaver, which helps SAP's products work with products from multiple software providers.

"Using Web services to connect the critical business information and processes in SAP NetWeaver with the power and productivity of Microsoft .Net will give our mutual customers a key competitive edge," said Bill Gates, Microsoft' s chief software architect, in a statement.

For Microsoft, the move could signal that the company is becoming more open to working with competing programming languages. NetWeaver is partly built to work with the Java programming language, the biggest competitor to .Net.

SAP, meanwhile, gains stronger ties to .Net, possibly helping the software maker's products work better with software and Internet services built with Microsoft's development technology.

In early trading, Microsoft shares fell 34 cents to $25.60. U.S.-traded SAP shares fell $1 to $36.70.

The agreement extends a 10-year partnership between the companies. More than 40,000 SAP installations of SAP software around the world run on Microsoft Windows -- more than any other operating software, the companies said.

Under terms of the deal, Microsoft and SAP said they will license each other's software and jointly market and sell some products. Also, Microsoft's development software will include functions for building additions on to SAP's software.