Gasoline Prices
On May 4, the national average of regular gasoline at the pump reached $3.985 a gallon, the highest since July 2008, according to AAA, the leading U.S. motoring organization.
Cocoa futures traded in New York declined for three consecutive weeks as exports resumed from Ivory Coast, the world's biggest producer. Prices will drop to as low as $2,525 a metric ton by the end of December, down 13 percent from the May 20 close of $2,902, according to the average estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Cocoa has slumped 23 percent since reaching a 32-year high on March 4.
"Cocoa prices will steadily decline into year-end with the Ivory Coast supplies being slowly liberated," said Luis Rangel, a vice president at ICAP Futures LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Shipments of cocoa beans registered at Ivory Coast's ports rose 18 percent to 15,872 tons in the 14 days to May 12 from a year earlier, according to an industry official with access to the data.