Thursday, October 27, 2005

Quick Overview

  • The U.S. Commerce Department said that durable goods orders were down 2.1% in September, weaker than expected. Excluding transportation, orders were down 1.0% on the month.

  • U.S. new home sales rose 2.1% in September (an annual rate of 1.222 million units) , turning around a decline the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. So far this year, new home sales are up 6.4% YoY.

  • U.S. jobless claims were down 28,000 last week to 328,000.

  • U.S. monthly retail sales of Class 8 trucks rose by 16.3% over last September’s level to 21,677 units, YoY the 23rd straight monthly increase.

  • Exxon Mobil earned a record high $9.92 billion in the third quarter, this is up $5.68 billion YoY.

  • Soaring oil prices and downstream divestments propelled Royal Dutch Shell’s earnings up 68% in the third quarter to $7.37bn, ahead of expectations.

  • The U.S. Census Bureau said that 133.2 million bushels of soybeans were crushed in September, 2% more than last month. Soybean oil stocks totaled 1.69 billion pounds, down 2% from last month.

  • French President Jacques Chirac threatened to derail international trade talks by ruling out further cuts in European Union farm subsidies and tariffs.

  • U.S. cotton mill use dropped from an annual rate of 6.00 to 5.73 million bales in September.

  • The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 77 billion cubic feet last week to 3.139 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are down 3% YoY.

  • New Zealand increased its key interest rate from 6.75% to 7.00%.

  • Brazil's central bank on Thursday said it saw a benign inflation scenario with only 'transitory' price pressures and raised market expectations it would continue its current pace of interest rate cuts.

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