Market Briefing---Lane (medium)
>> deborah kostroun at the big board.
>> what a run the price of natural gas has had. over the past 12 months it has surged more than 66%. devon energy is one of the players in the field and chief executive larry nickels tells bloomberg television prices need not be so high.
>>all the oil and gas companies have really not been able to explore as much as we would like to. we bought this to the attention of congress, but our access has been restrained and that’s driven up prices.
>> he says a change in government policy on gas would help.
>> it’s not a crisis but it is serious. it does require the country to strike a little more reasonable balance between our legitimate need to protect the environmental concerns of the country and at the same time our need for reasonably priced gas.
>> devon energy’s boss says the outlook for natural gas prices for the rest of this year depends entirely on the weather. shares up 1.5% in the latest trading. the leader of the nation’s largest steel producer says his industry still needs subsidies from washington to prevent elimination from foreign competitors. wilbur ross, chairman of the pry vament held international steel group says the industry is still in trouble. 30 u.s. steel makers are in bankruptcy trying to restructure. he says foreign governments have helped overseas steel makers overtake 20% of the u.s. steel market and sees no turn around in manufacturing yet.
>> i think we are bumping along at the bottom. manufacturing has a peculiar problem which is trade deficit. u.s. is importing 1,400 billion a year of goods from abroad. that’s 14% of our whole economy, and the net deficit, net of our exports is $500 billion. 5 3r7b9 of the -- 5% of the economy. if trade would break even we would have no unemployment in this country.
>> he says rising productivity in the u.s. steel by has lowered cost. he said u.s. workers can make a ton of steel in an hour while it takes six hours to do the same in china. optimism about growth in the u.s. may boost asian stocks for% -pa fourth day this week. coming up next we are off to tokyo for a preview of stocks to watch ahead of their market open. stay with us.
