By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor The benchmark crude oil rose 57 cents to settle at a record-high $140.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday, after a sell-off on Wall Street left the Dow Jones Industrial Average in bear territory. After plummeting 358 points on Thursday, the Dow dropped another 107 points to end the week at 11,346.51. After sliding 4.2% last week, the Dow is now down 20% from its Oct. 9 high of 14,165. And that means the benchmark U.S. index has officially entered into a bear market. “With oil prices bursting through the $140 threshold and seemingly unstoppable, economists are busily debating whether it’s all going to end in fire (inflation) or ice (deep recession),” said Doug Porter, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. “Equity markets aren’t so concerned about the fineries of the debate, but are ...

We just got May existing home sales data from the National Association of Realtors. Here's what the numbers looked like ...* Sales climbed 2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million in May from 4.89 million in April. That was slightly better than the average forecast of 4.95 million home sales. Sales were down 15.9% from the year-earlier reading of 5.93 million.* By region, sales rose 4.6% in the Northeast, 5.5% in the Midwest, and 2% in the West. They fell 0.5% in the South. By property type, sales climbed 1.6% in the single-family market and 5.5% in the condo arena. * The supply of homes for sale dipped 1.4% to 4.49 million units in May from 4.55 million in April, but climbed from 4.378 million a year earlier. On a months supply at current sales pace basis, inventory dipped to 10.8 months from ...

By Mike Caggeso Associate Editor Canada’s consumer price inflation rose 2.2% year-over-year in May, edging ahead as the Bank of Canada signaled it would last week. The spike suggests Canada’s economy of is also sputtering alongside that of the United States, but soaring commodities costs just may help our northern neighbor skirt recession. Inflation is up significantly from the 1.7% increase reported in April, Statistics Canada reported yesterday (Thursday). And high gas prices are to blame as fuel costs rose 15.0% in May compared with the same month last year - that’s considerably faster than the 12-month change of 11.6% posted in April. Excluding gasoline prices, 12-month inflation grew 1.6% in May. Last week, the central bank voted to keep its overnight interest rate at 3%, warning that inflation risks have “shifted slightly to the upside.” But the bank quickly followed that up ...