Among the sector activity stories for Wednesday, March 26, from AP Financial News:
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of companies that produce nickel, a key ingredient in making stainless steel, rose Wednesday on fresh evidence of China’s growing appetite for the commodity.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of regional banks fell Wednesday after an analyst said bad [...]

Oil futures rose slightly with the dollar’s latest decline pushing concerns about the economy and demand into the shadows.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 36 cents to settle at $101.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The modest gain was hardly part of a trend, and followed a session in which prices alternated [...]

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pegged its reference basket of 13 crude oils at $96.15 a barrel Monday. That is down 26 cents from Friday and $5.26 below the daily basket price a week ago.
The OPEC basket does not set prices in the market, but provides a snapshot of how OPEC values its output.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. raised its production target for 2008. The Houston company now expects to produce 207 million to 212 million barrels of oil equivalent, up from the previous range of 205 million to 210 million barrels.
The production increase came with a boos in Anadarko’s capital budget — by $400 million to a range of [...]

Chesapeake Energy shares jumped after the natural gas producer announced plans to expand drilling and boosted its production forecasts.
The Oklahoma City-based company says 2008 output should rise 21 percent over last year’s total, to 2.37 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Output in 2009 is likely to grow another 16 percent.
Chesapeake also laid out plans [...]

Shares of Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras had a good run Tuesday after shareholders approved a 2-1 split for its Brazil-traded shares, as well as its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), effective April 25.
Petrobras shares in New York rose $5.40, or 5.5 percent, to $103 in afternoon trading.

A survey of gasoline retailers by MasterCard SpendingPulse for the week ending March 21 found demand at the pump increased 1.2 percent, to 65.1 million barrels, from 64.3 million barrels in the previous week. Compared with last year, demand increased 5.3 percent.
Study author Michael McNamara said the year-over-year comparison is higher than the norm because [...]

Oil prices soared more than $4 a barrel as lower-than-expected fuel inventories and another dollar drop brought buyers out in force for the first time in a week.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose $4.68 to settle at $105.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said gasoline [...]

Although analysts said the EIA report of a 6.9 million-barrel decline in refined products last week was positive for refiners, many think refiners are far from out of the woods, as high crude prices and weaker demand for gasoline and diesel are likely to persist.
“We expect refiners to continue limiting production of gasoline in the [...]

Shares of Marathon Oil Corp. rose nearly 3 percent at one point as oil prices spiked, and the company prepared to outline its plans for the year. The company is scheduled to meet with investors and Wall Street analysts Wednesday to talk about its strategy.