Business briefs

LONDON. Oil prices hovered above $68 a barrel yesterday after a two-day plunge as a drop in US crude inventories suggested demand may be recovering. Benchmark crude for October delivery was up 60 cents to $68.29 a barrel by midday European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract Tuesday lost $1.91 to settle at $68.05.

BRUSSELS.The 16-nation eurozone economy shrank in the second quarter but by just 0.1 percent, largely due to lower investment, official EU statistics showed on Wednesday. The 0.1 percent decline was the fifth consecutive quarter of falling economic output for the area but marked a huge improvement on the record 2.5 percent plunge in the first three months of the year.

NEW YORK. The US Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday it will ask Congress to transform mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into companies that would issue mortgage securities with a government guarantee. The proposed framework from the industry group would give successor entities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the authority to create securities backed by certain types of mortgage.

NEW YORK. Job losses in the US private sector fell to their lowest monthly level in nearly a year, a report by a private employment service showed on Wednesday, signaling stabilization in the labor sector. US employers cut 298,000 jobs in August, fewer than a revised 360,000 jobs lost in July, according to the ADP Employer Services report. The July decline was originally reported at 371,000 last month.

CARACAS. Microsoft's Venezuelan office has created a new unit to focus specifically on public sector accounts in order to increase the amount of business with the government during fiscal year 2010, begun July 1, Microsoft Venezuela general manager Anayda Frisneda said.

BRASILIA. Federally controlled Banco do Brasil is looking to take 30% of the US remittance market with its newly launched subsidiary BB Money Transfers, the Brazilian bank's international business director Admilson Monteiro García told BNamericas. García said that BB will be planning on opening five branches in the US in its second phase of expansion.