Wall Street falls, but oil rises

Negative sentiment ruled on Wall Street overnight, causing the Dow Jones industrial index to fall 104.79 points to 12,720.23.

The S&P 500 also also fell, dropping 12.23 points to 1,375.94.

The tech heavy NASDAQ composite index went down, too, falling 31.1 points to 2,376.94.

There was one spectacular rise overnight, Australian time, though. Oil price futures soared to almost $US120 a barrel, before easing slightly.

That was due, largely, to a fall in the $US. The greenback was quoted at just 102.9400 Japanese yen, at the close of trade in New York, down from 103.2500 yen, the day before.

Meanwhile, the Murdoch empire continues to advance in the United States, with Rupert Murdoch, himself, gaining a seat on the board of the world’s biggest newsagency, The Associated Press.

Murdoch, clearly, is a better business-man, than forecaster, though.

An enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq War, he predicted before the invasion, five years ago, that it could see oil prices fall to $US20 a barrel.

The greatest thing to come out of the war would be “$20 a barrel for oil,” he said then.

Perhaps, though, Rupert was misquoted.

Perhaps the printer just dropped the “1″ before the “20″.