The end of hurricane season should bring oil prices down, and with the end of summer driving season, the demand just isn't there to push gasoline processing much higher.
The numbers fueled worries that American consumers are feeling the pressure of an ongoing slump in the housing market, mortgage turmoil and also higher energy costs.
Mortgage rates dropped in the latest week, which could help home buyers who are looking to refinance, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.
The discount window is the way the central bank provides direct loans to banks. The Fed on Aug. 17 announced it was cutting the interest it charges banks to make direct loans by a half-percentage point. It has been the most dramatic move the central bank has made to signal that it was prepared to do what was necessary to contain the fallout from the credit crisis that began with rising delinquencies in subprime mortgages but has now spread to other types of loans. Jones said he expected the Fed to go further and begin cutting the more economically important federal funds rate next Tuesday at the Fed's regularly scheduled meeting. A cut in the funds rate, which has been at 5.25 percent for a year, would immediately trigger declines in banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans.
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