Morning business file (Oil, Gas and US house price) - 节选自Edmonton Journal

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Crude prices hold stready
; N& ~& F2 n; s" v2 S# ]( \NEW YORK  (Bloomberg) — Crude oil was little changed amid speculation a U.S.  Energy Department report tomorrow will show that U.S. crude-oil inventories increased and fuel supplies declined.
% W1 ]) f/ K$ }9 I6 ?1 I4 ^; Q7 X" [U.S. refineries perform maintenance in March as the heating season wanes. Refineries in the week ended March 9 operated at 85.6 per cent of capacity, down 0.2 percentage point from the week before, according to the Energy Department. A government report showed that housing starts in the U.S. rose last month, easing concern that the U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, is slowing.
“Nobody seems to want oil today because refinery utilization is so low,” said Phil Flynn, a commodities trader for Chicago-based Alaron Trading. “I think there will be a rally by the end of the day because of the housing number. Prices have been falling on economic fears and the housing number is evidence that the economy is in better shape.”
0 }* i  @" t* A: ?# YCrude oil for April delivery rose 8 cents to $56.67 a barrel at 9:45 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April contract expires today. The more-active May futures contract rose 10 cents to $59.80 a barrel. Prices are down 6.3 percent from a year ago.
- s( }; n5 [7 ~" u  rBrent crude oil for May settlement rose 6 cents to $60.58 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.
# S& m5 o- G  |6 x3 C/ PBuilders broke ground on new homes at an annual rate of 1.525 million last month, up 9 percent from a 1.399 million rate the prior month, the Commerce Department said.
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. I8 R; g! \( }0 T6 D7 YGas price could fall
CALGARY (Bloomberg) — Natural gas at Canada’s biggest trading point may fall on forecasts for warmer weather in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast that would reduce demand for the heating fuel.
Demand for heating in the Midwest will decline to 35 per cent below normal tomorrow from 5 per cent above normal today, according to Belton, Missouri-based Weather Derivatives Inc. Heating use in the Northeast will be 26 per cent below normal by March 22, the forecaster said.
! F5 F5 w. h% Z. ~9 s7 L( QOn Calgary-based Natural Gas Exchange Inc.’s NGX electronic energy market, spot gas at AECO, Canada’s largest trading hub, fell 19.5 cents yesterday to $6.80 per gigajoule ($6.09 million British thermal units).
0 I$ [4 D3 t% a; qSpot gas at AECO yesterday declined 6 cents to $6.73 per gigajoule, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. housing starts rebound
WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — Housing starts rebounded in February from a nine-year low, easing concern that the U.S. real-estate slump will worsen and threaten the economic expansion.
% W; s5 E3 f* `  U0 A* _+ Y5 M! |Builders broke ground on new homes at an annual rate of 1.525 million last month, up 9 per cent from the prior month and more than economists forecast, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Building permits fell 2.5 per cent.
The numbers eased speculation that climbing defaults on subprime mortgages would put additional homes on the market, leading builders to halt more projects and fire workers. At the same time, swings in the monthly figures don’t convey the stability desired by Federal Reserve policy makers, who meet today and tomorrow to set interest rates.