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Soaring rates of domestic oil consumption will reduce crude exports from OPEC, Russia and Mexico by 2.5 million barrels per day by the end of this decade, predicts a new CIBC World Markets study. Currently these countries account for roughly 60 per cent of global production.

JupiterResearch has found that growth in online spending by small businesses remains strong. Detailed in a new report, "US Online Small Business Market Category Forecast, 2007 to 2012," the total online expenditures by small businesses is expected to top $70 billion by the year 2012, up from $47 billion in 2006.

A combination of market volatility, the introduction of TradElect and recent enhancements to the volume discount scheme contributed to a surge in trading volumes on SETS, the London Stock Exchange’s electronic order book, during August. The number of trades on SETS exceeded a million on three separate days during August, helping to take the average daily number of trades to a new high of 688,391, an increase of 141 per cent on August last year. The average daily value traded on SETS was also a record at £9.9 billion, an increase of 96 per cent on August 2006.

Online job activity grew in the UK in August as the Monster Employment Index UK gained two points, bouncing back from a dip in July. This increase was caused mainly by significant growth in the arts, entertainment, sports and leisure; and administrative, organisation sectors. Regionally, the South West and North England saw the largest increases in online job demand, whilst Northern Ireland and East Anglia declined most. Overall, the Index reached 167 points, up 30 percent since August last year.

Nearly 97% of small-business owners expect their e-commerce revenue to stay the same or increase during the next one to two years, according to a Small Business Research Board study.

Global Insight released the 2007 second-quarter update of House Prices in America, the U.S. housing-valuation analysis, which shows the incidence of overvaluation in the nation's housing market continues to decline, the result of falling home prices. Nationally, home prices are up year-over-year just 2.6%, the weakest gain since 1995.

There were 12 IPOs in August compared with 11 one year ago. Three IPOs were on TSE Mothers, there were two each on the TSE 1st section, OSE Hercules and JASDAQ, and one each on the TSE 2nd section, Fukuoka exchange and Fukuoka Q-Board. During the first eight months of 2007, there have been 89 IPOs, a decline of 23 compared with the 112 IPOs in 2006 by the end of August.

According to a new study by BDO Seidman, LLP, chief financial officers (CFOs) at leading U.S. retailers are predicting 5.6 percent growth for 2007. Close to half (47%) of the CFOs cited high fuels costs as the issue having the greatest impact on consumer confidence in the first half of 2007. However, looking forward to the balance of the year, there was less agreement among the CFOs on the main issue that will impact consumer confidence. High fuel costs (29%) and the weak housing market (25%) were cited by at least one-quarter of these executives, while interest rates (19%) and the sub-prime lending crisis (15%) were also mentioned by a number of CFOs.

The mix-adjusted average house price in the UK in July 2007 stood at £218,479, up from £214,222 in June 2007 (not seasonally adjusted).

The standardised unemployment rate for the OECD area was 5.4% in July 2007, the same as the previous month and 0.6 percentage point lower than a year earlier.