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London and New York house the world's two most important oil futures market: the ICE in London where the Brent contract is traded, and Nymex in New York where the West Texas Intermediate contract is the star.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Commission will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at furthering coordination of European Union external lending policies. The objective of the MoU is to strengthen the consistency of EIB lending with the external policy objectives of the EU by reinforcing dialogue and planning between the two institutions, so as to optimise the use of grant and loan resources.

To improve the internal market for construction products, the European Commission has proposed to replace the “Construction Product Directive” (89/106/EEC) by a new Regulation aiming to remove all remaining regulatory and technical obstacles to the free circulation of construction products in the European Economic Area.

From June 2007 to September 2007, the number of job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments was 7.2 million, and the number of job losses from closing and contracting establishments was 7.5 million, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The world steel market remains strong in spite of heightened risks to the global economy, according to industry and government officials at the OECD’s Steel Committee meeting in Paris on 22-23 May 2008.

Existing-home sales slowed in April, partly because restrictive lending practices hampered home buyers. At the same time, a greater number of areas are showing sales gains from a year ago and a recent reversal in mortgage policy means the market is better positioned for a turnaround, according to the National Association of Realtors(R).

comScore, Inc. released retail e-commerce data for April 2008, which showed that the year-over-year growth rate rebounded to 15 percent, following an increase of just 9 percent in March.

The European Commission is moving a step closer to making it easier for companies, in particular Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), to bid for public sector contracts anywhere in the EU; a crucial step towards achieving the Single European Market. The Commission will co-finance a pilot project, driven by eight European countries that will create the conditions to link existing national electronic public procurement (e-procurement) systems. Simplifying cross-border procurement will generate savings on administrative and transaction costs and will benefit taxpayers who ultimately pay for public purchases. The project will invest more than € 19 million over three years, € 9.8 million of which will come from the European Commission's Competitiveness and Innovation Programme.

Overall emissions of CO2 from businesses in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) increased by 0.68% in 2007 when adjusted for changes in the number of installations covered, according to the information provided by Member State registries. While well below the 2.8% growth in the EU's Gross Domestic Product recorded last year, the slight increase in emissions underlines the need for the tighter emission caps that have been set for the 2008-2012 trading period.

A report released by researchers at Tufts University, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), presents two ways of estimating the costs of inaction on climate change, both leading to staggering bottom lines. A comprehensive estimate, based on state-of-the-art computer modeling, finds that doing nothing on global warming will cost the United States economy more than 3.6 percent of GDP - or $3.8 trillion annually (in today's dollars) - by 2100.