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Oil settles over $60 a barrel for the first time
New York: With little relief from oil prices on the horizon, crude oil contracts for next-month delivery settled in New York above $60 a barrel for the first time yesterday, as demand for fuel showed few signs of slowing despite the highest energy costs in more than two decades.

Light crude oil for delivery in August ended trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $60.54 a barrel, up 70 cents, or more than 1 percent, after touching an intraday high of $60.95. Oil futures prices on the New York market have risen more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year.

Oil prices have broken through a series of psychological levels and trading records in the last year or so, moving through $40 a barrel in May 2004, then $50 in October and touching $60 a barrel for the first time last Thursday.

The latest price spike followed the victory in Iran's presidential election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an Islamic conservative, who signaled over the weekend that he might adopt a more nationalistic oil policy.
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SEC to investigate IBM disclosures
New York: IBM, the world's largest computer company, said the US Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting an informal probe into the company's disclosures relating to its first-quarter earnings and stock-based compensation.

A company spokesman said IBM had "no reason to believe at this time that the accuracy of its earnings was an issue". The company said it was complying with the SEC's request and noted that the agency's investigation was not an indication that any violations of law had occurred.
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