Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic

Substitute Vaclav Sverkos gave the Czech Republic a winning start to Euro 2008 with a second-half strike that broke Switzerland's resistance.
Swiss skipper Alexander Frei was twice denied by Petr Cech before he was forced off injured and Hakan Yakin headed a chance wide after the break.
On 70 minutes Sverkos slotted in a low volley from 12 yards after latching on to a ball over the top of the defence.
The Swiss were denied an equaliser when Johan Vonlanthen's volley hit the bar. And it might prove that the width of the woodwork could be the end of the Swiss, with tough matches against Portugal and Turkey to come in Group A.
Realistically the tournament's co-hosts needed to get something out of their opening game, and they started as though they were absolutely determined to.
After three minutes, the Czechs gave the ball away cheaply in midfield but Frei dragged his shot wide and failed to capitalise.
That should have been a wake-up call to the Czechs, but they appeared in no rush to raise their tempo.
As a result, Switzerland - unfancied in the group - grew in confidence and stroked the ball around, but with little cutting edge.
A weak effort from Gokhan Inler was indicative of their toothless attacks up until that point.

Frei, though, looked the liveliest player on the pitch, and despite having no help from his struggling strike partner Marco Streller, he began to cause some problems.
It took a decent stop from Cech to deny him the opening goal of Euro 2008 after he had latched on to a long clearance from his own keeper.
Frei followed that up with a 30-yard shot that Cech opted to use his fists to clear, despite there being little sign of the any movement from ball.
Sadly for Frei it would prove to be virtually his last contribution to the match as he later hobbled off after a jarring challenge.
The Czech Republic had already started showing signs of waking from the slumber before then, and with crisp passing and better movement were dictating the play.
But their final ball was awful and up front, giant striker Jan Koller looked slow and cumbersome.
After the break the Swiss brought on Hakan Yakin for the injured Frei and they started the half positively.
As the Czechs found themselves pinned back, Yakin got himself into the action but was too high with an effort following a free-kick.
But it was clear Yakin was already having more of an impact than Koller and it was no surprise when the Czech's top scorer was replaced by Vaclav Sverkos.
And the Swiss substitute should have opened the scoring when he was presented with a free header, but he directed the ball wide the right-hand post.
It was to prove a costly miss when, on 70 minutes, Czech substitute Sverkos finished smartly into the bottom corner after latching on to a ball over the top of the Swiss defence.
Yet Switzerland almost snatched a draw when Tranquillo Barnetta's shot was superbly parried by Cech and Vonlanthen smashed the follow-up against the woodwork.

Dark day on Wall Street

The Dow's 395-point drubbing is its biggest one-day point loss in 15 months, after crude prices' largest one-day advance ever and a poor jobs report.
NEW YORK - Stocks tanked Friday, with the Dow industrials shedding 395 points, after oil prices spiked more than $11 a barrel and the May jobs report showed a big jump in the unemployment rate.
Bond prices surged, as investors sought safety in government debt, while the dollar tumbled versus the yen and euro.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 395 points, or 3.1%, its biggest one-day decline on both a point and percentage basis since February of 2007, at the start of the subprime mortgage crisis.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index lost 3.1%, while the Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 3%. Both saw their biggest one-day declines on both a point and a percentage basis in more than four months.
The unemployment rate shot up to 5.5% in May from 5.0% in April, the government reported, marking the biggest one-month surge in over 20 years. The report was a clear indication that the economy could be in a recession after all, despite some recent bets that one could be narrowly avoided.
As rattling as the unemployment number was, the stock market was even more spooked by the spike in oil prices, said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management.
"I think more than anything, it's the shock of oil prices being up this substantially two days in a row," Stone said.
Crude jumped more than $16 in two sessions, with prices settling up $10.75 to $138.54 a barrel Friday on the weak dollar and in response to a Morgan Stanley note that said oil could hit $150 a barrel by July 4.
The spike exacerbated worries about consumer spending, already stretched as gas prices near a national average of $4 a gallon.
"You're definitely seeing the fear trade today, with the dollar down, commodity prices up and bonds rallying," Stone said.
Stocks could be vulnerable to further declines in the week ahead, after the S&P 500 closed below a key technical level that has previously given a floor to the selling. Traders said stocks could be in danger of moving back to the lows of March and January, which were seen as something of a bottom after months of stock declines.
Jobs market deteriorates: The unemployment rate surged to 5.5% from 5.0%, beating forecasts for a rise to 5.1% and showing the biggest one-month jump since 1986.
The spike really caught people by surprise, said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. He said the report makes it clear that at least for so-called Main Street and the labor market, "we are in a recession, regardless of how we economists define it."
He was referring to the fact that GDP has been limping higher and the economy has not been officially declared to be in a recession by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
However, with non-farm payrolls dropping for a fifth consecutive month, it feels to many people like it's a recession, he said. Employers cut 49,000 from their payrolls, the report showed, versus forecasts for a decline of 60,000.
Dollar falls, oil spikes: The dollar continued its slide versus the euro on the weak jobs report and comments Thursday that the European Central Bank could potentially raise interest rates. The dollar also tanked versus the yen.
The dollar's decline contributed to a rally in dollar-traded commodity prices, with U.S. light crude oil for July delivery settling at $138.54 a barrel, a jump of $10.75. The increase was the biggest single-day price gain since record-keeping began in 1983 - taking out the previous session's record.
Oil prices spiked to a record trading high of $139.12 after the close, before pulling back a bit.
Gold and other commodities rallied too. COMEX gold for August delivery rose $23.50 to settle at $899 an ounce.
Gas backs off record: The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas fell to $3.986 from the previous day's record of $3.989, AAA reported. Gas prices had set new records for 28 of the previous 29 days.
Other markets: Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.93% from 4.05% late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
On the move: Stock declines were broad based, with all 30 Dow issues falling.
The Dow's financial components were hit the hardest, with American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) both down 5%, and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) down more than 4%.
AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) slumped more than 7% on reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether the insurer overstated the value of contracts connected to subprime markets, something AIG denies. Additionally, it was reported that federal prosecutors have asked the SEC for material related to the investigation.
Other big blue-chip losers included General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), down nearly 5%, and Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), down 5.4%.
Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500), Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) and Qualcomm (QCOM, Fortune 500) were among the biggest technology decliners.
Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners by over 4 to 1 on 1.48 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by nearly 4 to 1 on volume of 2.20 billion shares.
Stocks spiked Thursday on a surprise dip in weekly jobless claims, stronger-than-expected May retail sales and a merger in the telecom sector. But the advance was short-lived as Friday's barrage of discouraging economic news and spiking oil prices brought out the seller

US unemployment rate reaches 5.5%

The US unemployment rate rose at its fastest pace in more than two decades in May, stoking fears of recession in the world's biggest economy.
The surprise jump in May's jobless rate to 5.5% from 5% is the most recent signal yet that US growth is stalling.
It shows US companies are more reluctant to hire as profits are squeezed by a consumer slowdown and soaring oil and raw material costs.
The US Labor Department said the economy lost 49,000 non-farm jobs.

It follows a 28,000 decline in April, and will fuel fears the US economy is sliding towards recession, analysts said.
The worry is that a weak labour market will see consumers rein in their spending, hurting corporate profits.
The poor data rattled the stock market, with the blue-chip Dow Jones index sliding 1.79%, or 225.70 points, to 12378.75 in afternoon trade in New York.
Cost of living
In recent months, the US Federal Reserve has been slashing interest rates in an attempt to stoke growth.
But analysts believe the rising cost of living, rather than interest rates, should be the US central bank's chief concern now.
"If you want to avoid a protracted recession, you have to make sure inflation doesn't get out of control," said Gilles Moec, an analyst at Bank of America.
"Otherwise, you're going to have a loss of purchasing power meaning consumer spending is going to slow down even more."
Consumer spending is the engine of the US economy, and the latest jobless data is another set-back for Americans who are struggling with falling house prices, a credit squeeze and rising fuel bills.
Analysts said the figures came as a surprise:
"The unemployment rate is the shocker," said Bert Macintosh, chief economist at Eaton Vance Management.
"The unemployment rate gives you a much weaker economic outlook than the payrolls number," he added.
Analysts had expected between 30,000 and 58,000 jobs to go.
In April, 28,000 non-farm jobs were lost, fewer than than expected

Medvedev warns against Nato entry

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned Georgia and Ukraine of serious consequences if they press ahead with plans to join Nato.
Mr Medvedev and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Georgia's president that joining the alliance would lead to a "spiral of confrontation".
Mr Medvedev said Ukraine would be in breach of a friendship treaty if it joined Nato, Mr Lavrov said.
The leaders are at a summit of 12 ex-Soviet states in St Petersburg.
Conflicts
Georgia has been pushing for entry to Nato and the European Union, straining relations with Russia.
Tensions have also grown over Russia's support for separatists in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Both Russia and Georgia have accused each other of preparing for war in Abkhazia.
"We reiterated our strong interest in seeing those conflicts resolved," Mr Lavrov said, following the meeting with Mr Saakashvili at the Commonwealth of Independent States informal summit.
"We stated this could not be achieved by moving Georgia artificially into Nato because this would lead to another spiral of confrontation in the area."
The Georgian president played down talk of confrontation, saying the problem could be resolved with "goodwill".
'Security risks'
Analysts had been waiting to see if Mr Medvedev's relations with Ukraine and Georgia would be warmer than those under his predecessor, Vladimir Putin. But the new president stuck to the same line as Mr Putin when he met President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine on Friday.
He pointed to a 1997 friendship treaty between Russia and Ukraine.
"The treaty... contains the obligation on the two parties not to do anything which would create threats or risks for the security of the other party," Mr Lavrov told reporters.
"This was reiterated by President Medvedev, that we do not believe Nato membership for Ukraine would serve... the interests of the two countries."
Mr Medvedev also warned Mr Yushchenko not to expel the Russian navy from the base it leases at Sevastopol on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, as it has threatened to do.
And he said Russia would almost double the price it charges neighbouring Ukraine for gas from 1 January, 2009.
Mr Lavrov denied the move was political, saying it was forced by increasing costs in Central Asia. The two countries have had several recent disputes over gas, with Russia cutting supplies and Ukraine alleging Moscow uses gas as a political weapon.

Zimbabwe halts opposition rallies

Zimbabwe's authorities have stopped opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai from campaigning for the 27 June election.
The order banning "several future rallies" came after police briefly detained Mr Tsvangirai ahead of a rally in the second-largest city of Bulawayo.
The length or extent of the ban, which cites security fears, is not yet clear.
It comes soon after the government banned food aid distribution, saying agencies were helping the opposition.
Relief organisations reject the charges, warning that Zimbabwe's "desperate" situation could get even worse. They had been hoping to feed around 600,000 people this month, as the country has just had its harvest.
But when that food runs out early next year, they say between two and four million people - up to a third of the population - will need food aid.

See map of food shortages in Zimbabwe
The restrictions on aid agencies - making the government the sole provider of food aid - have drawn widespread condemnation.
The US ambassador to Zimbabwe said Mr Mugabe's government was using food as a weapon to get votes, distributing food only to its own supporters. Zimbabwe's authorities have stopped opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai from campaigning for the 27 June election.
The order banning "several future rallies" came after police briefly detained Mr Tsvangirai ahead of a rally in the second-largest city of Bulawayo.
The length or extent of the ban, which cites security fears, is not yet clear.
It comes soon after the government banned food aid distribution, saying agencies were helping the opposition.
Relief organisations reject the charges, warning that Zimbabwe's "desperate" situation could get even worse. They had been hoping to feed around 600,000 people this month, as the country has just had its harvest.
But when that food runs out early next year, they say between two and four million people - up to a third of the population - will need food aid.
The restrictions on aid agencies - making the government the sole provider of food aid - have drawn widespread condemnation.
The US ambassador to Zimbabwe said Mr Mugabe's government was using food as a weapon to get votes, distributing food only to its own supporters.

He said the government was also confiscating the identification cards of opposition supporters which means they cannot get government food aid and will not be able to vote in the presidential run-off.
"We are dealing with a desperate regime here which will do anything to stay in power," said Ambassador James McGee.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, said the decision to prevent the agencies carrying out their work was "a true perversion of democracy".
Zimbabwe's National Organisation of Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango) said the ban on field operations was illegal and would have an "immediate, critical and negative impact especially on children, people living with HIV/Aids, the elderly, pregnant mothers and the disabled".
Safety fears
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says gatherings planned for Harare's high density townships of Glen Norah, Kambuzuma and Mufakose and the city of Chitungwiza were also banned by police.
The party says the ban is "rank madness" as the meetings are its only way to communicate with supporters because it is denied access to public media.
In a statement, the party quoted a letter from the police saying that "because the MDC had complained that its leaders were targets for assassination the authorities could not guarantee their safety and were therefore banning several future public rallies".
The government has previously dismissed MDC concerns of a possible assassination threat as fantasy.
The MDC accuses President Mugabe's supporters of leading a campaign of intimidation which has forced thousands from their homes and left at least 65 dead.
Mr Tsvangirai was detained by police for several hours on Friday - the second such incident in three days. On Wednesday, he was stopped and held for eight hours before being released without charge.
Zimbabwe's information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu declined to comment.

UK home prices 'fell 2.4% in May'

UK house prices dropped by 2.4% in May, according to a report by the Halifax, Britain's biggest mortgage lender.

That pushed prices 3.8% lower than a year ago and means that the price of the average home fell to £184,111.
The Bank of England said on Thursday it was leaving interest rates unchanged at 5%, despite calls from estate agents and construction firms for a cut.
Many mortgages have been withdrawn and available rates have risen in spite of three rate cuts since December.

Spending squeeze
The Halifax said the annual fall in prices was the biggest it had seen since 1993.
If prices continue falling at the rate seen since the start of the year then they will fall by 16% over the course of 2008.
The Halifax's survey echoed the results of the latest study from the Nationwide building society, which reported a 2.5% fall in house prices during May.
And earlier this week, figures from the Bank of England showed the number of new mortgages being approved for house purchases in April hit the lowest level since the Bank began reporting the figures in 1993.
"The decline in prices is caused by the difficulties created for potential house purchasers by the rapid rise in house prices in the last few years, a squeeze on spending power and the reduction in credit availability," said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.
He pointed out that average earnings rose by 4% in the year to March, much less than fuel prices, which rose 9%, and food prices, which rose 7%.

Tougher times?
The Halifax has already predicted that house prices will probably fall next year as well as in 2008.
Over past weeks there has been increasing evidence that the UK economy is heading for a longer and sharper economic slowdown than many people first thought.
On Wednesday, the international think tank the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the UK faced a significant downturn.
The OECD forecast that UK growth would slow to 1.8% this year, and to 1.4% in 2009.
It added that three factors were hurting the UK and global economy; weakening property markets, a global credit crisis and high commodity costs.
"The latest data on the housing market are undeniably alarming," said Howard Archer, chief economist at Global Insight."Clearly, the downward pressure on house prices coming from stretched buyer affordability and tight lending conditions is now biting hard."

Six fixes for pricey gasoline

Ideas to help people ease the burden of high gas prices are swirling in Washington. Will any of them work?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- With a nationwide average gas price of just about $4 a gallon, lots of people are thinking there must be something the government can do to help.
Some things which contribute to high gas prices are largely out of the government's control. OPEC will produce as little oil as it sees fit, largely independent of any U.S. intervention. Developing nations will continue to subsidize gas prices, helping their growing economies and keeping demand high.
Areas where the government can help, like a big push into alternative energy, more drilling in the United States, or a jump in fuel efficiency standards, will take years to materialize. Even then, any price decline is likely to be small.
As consumers scramble to adjust their lives to deal with high gas prices experts debate what the government can do to help in the short term.
It's unclear if any of the ideas being discussed will work. Some say Americans will just have to deal with $4 gas and learn to use less of it.

Short-term fixes
Tax oil companies more, give the money to motorists. This idea is a central part of Barack Obama's energy platform.
The candidate would impose a windfall profits tax on the big oil companies whenever oil crossed the $80 a barrel mark. The cash would be given to low income people to help them offset their energy costs.
Other proposals in the Senate include selling rights to emit greenhouse gasses - known as carbon credits - and giving the proceeds to all households making under $100,000 a year.
But opponents say raising taxes on oil companies will result in less oil production, and ultimately lead to higher prices. If the government didn't tax oil companies and simply borrowed the cash, that would only hurt the dollar, and send oil prices higher.
Limit oil speculation. Many people believe oil speculators are essential to a properly functioning market.
But some say they have too much free reign and should be subject to greater restriction.
"The amount of money going into oil speculation is driving the price," said Judy Dugan, research director at Consumer Watchdog.
Dugan is calling for increasing the amount of money oil investors need to put up to buy contracts. She also wants more disclosure of trading positions held in overseas or electronic markets.
Dugan may be on to something. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission recently said it is requiring greater disclosure, and oil prices backed off nearly $9 from recent highs.
But opponents urge caution. They say supply and demand are driving high oil prices. Fewer speculators in the market, they say, will just make it harder to secure contracts and make it easier for a single player to manipulate prices.
Ease refining restrictions. Refineries seem to be in a perpetual mess. They currently have to make over 40 types of gasoline blends to meet clean air requirements in different areas. They are also only running at about 85%capacity.
Easing clean air requirements or reducing the number of blends made might bring down prices.

"It's obviously a trade off with environmental concerns," said John Kilduff, an energy analyst at MF Global in New York. "But it might take some of the stress off refiners."
Dugan is also calling for more information about refiner's profit margins, and perhaps laws requiring them to make more gas.
But the industry says making all those different blends actually doesn't cost that much more money. And other analysts say refiners are barely turning a profit running at 85% capacity, as gasoline prices have not risen as much as the price of crude oil. more
Lift the ethanol tariff. Ethanol from places like Brazil, made with sugar cane that packs more energy than U.S. corn-based ethanol, is currently subject to a 54-cent a gallon tariff, designed to protect the domestic ethanol industry from foreign competition.
Since ethanol is a required component in gasoline, critics of the tariff say lifting it would mean cheaper gas for everyone.
But with ethanol making up less than 10% of the nation's gasoline supply, any drop in gas prices would likely be minimal.
Open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Congress recently directed the Bush administration to stop filling the reserve to the tune of 70,000 barrels a day, or 0.3% of the nation's daily oil consumption.
Analysts said the amount of oil involved was too small to have any effect on prices. They were right: oil prices actually rose following the directive.
Some say releasing oil from the reserve, located in giant salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico and holding over 700 million barrels of oil, would send a message to traders that the government is not willing to let oil prices go up forever.

But others say the reserve serves an important role as a buffer against supply disruptions from overseas, and traders would bid up prices if the reserve were smaller. More.

Suspend the gas tax. This idea was roundly criticized when proposed first by John McCain and later by Hillary Clinton.

Analysts said doing away with the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax over the summer would leave road repair dangerously underfunded, and could even lead to higher gas prices as people drove more.

Still, the idea has it's backers.

"I thought it maybe wasn't a bad idea," said Kilduff, who noted that eliminating state taxes as well - which currently average an additional 21 cents a gallon - could translate into savings for motorists. More.

Tough love

The fact that these proposals have so many caveats, and would likely bring prices down only moderately or not at all, leaves some analysts saying there's not much the government can do to lower prices.

High gas prices are here to stay, and consumers are just going to have to bear the burden until they figure out how to use less fuel, they say.

"Like the president said, it's an addiction," said Lee Schipper, a visiting scholar at University of California Berkeley's Transportation Center. "There's going to be a time when going cold turkey hurts."

Moreover, even if the government could lower prices, it might not be in everyone's long-term interest.

"It's only when the price is high that people actually do things" to conserve, said Schipper. "Gas at $2 a gallon underprices the real cost to the environment and the nation."

Gas prices have climbed to record levels. Are you feeling the pinch? Tell us how gas prices are affecting you and what you're doing to cope.

Oil falls below $122 on growing demand concerns

edged down on Thursday, adding to the past two sessions' USD 5 losses, as India and Malaysia's decisions to raise fuel costs, together with weaker US consumption, heightened worries about falling oil demand.
US light crude for July delivery fell 38 cents to USD 121.92 a barrel, having settled down USD 2.01 on Wednesday at USD 122.30, its lowest settlement in almost a month.
London Brent crude fell 45 cents to USD 121.65.
"Weaker demand is the main concern now," said Tetsu Emori, fund manager at Astmax Co Ltd in Tokyo. "With domestic prices in these emerging countries now quite high, people will cut their consumption and that is a worry for the market."
India and Malaysia raised retail fuel prices on Wednesday, joining a growing number of Asian nations no longer able to afford big subsidies in the face of record-breaking oil prices.
India raised retail petrol and diesel fuel prices by about 10 percent and Malaysia hiked petrol prices by 41 percent.
Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia reviewed their subsidies last month.
US weekly data added to the bearish sentiment as larger-than-expected builds in products stocks, and falling gasoline demand, trumped a surprisingly big drawdown in crude oil stocks.
The US Energy Information Administration reported gasoline inventories rose 2.9 million barrels last week -- despite the start of the summer driving season -- while gasoline demand over the past four weeks slumped 1.4 percent versus last year.
Distillate stocks jumped by 2.3 million barrels, while crude stocks fell 4.8 million barrels.
"Gasoline demand is still a primary focus and the loss of 1.4 percent during the past four weeks on a year-over-year basis and the cumulative year-over-year decline of 1 percent since the beginning of this year attests to a major change in consumer driving habits," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates of Galena, Illinois, in a post-market commentary.
Adding to the downward pressures, the US dollar was steady near three-month highs on Thursday, holding gains made in the previous day after Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke emphasised inflation concerns.
A stronger dollar tends to make dollar-denominated commodities less attractive to investors.