Quick Overview

Crude oil prices continued to fall Wednesday, dropping below $51 a barrel following a Department of Energy report showing strong inventories for both oil and gasoline.
The DOE said that:
Crude oil supplies increased 3.6 million barrels last week to 320.7 million barrels. Unleaded supplies improved by 800,000 barrels, and heating oil supplies were up 600,000 barrels. The Strategic Petroleum Reserves are now at 688.8 million barrels, close to the 700 million barrel target.


March retail sales rose 0.3%, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, less than forecasters had predicted.


U.S. economic growth will average 3.6% this year, the fastest among the world's leading industrialized nations, according to a new International Monetary Fund report.
The IMF said that they expect real economic growth in 2005 and 2006 for:
The United States to be 3.6% for both years.
Canada to be 2.8% and 3.0%.
The United Kingdom to be 2.6% for both years.
The Euro area to be 1.6% and 2.3%.
Japan to be .8% and 1.9%.


The U.K.'s unemployment rate for the three months to February was 4.8%, up .1 from the previous three months.


The Japanese government said that their economy is improving at a restrained pace. YoY Producer prices were up 1.4% in March.


Overall trucking freight volumes fell 2.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis to 115.5 in February, according to an updated American Trucking Associations index released Tuesday.

Pandemic-causing 'Asian flu' accidentally releasedThe flu testing kits were sent to some 3700 labs between October 2004 and February 2005 by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), a professional body which helps pathology laboratories improve their accuracy, by sending them unidentified samples of various germs to identify.
The CAP kits - prepared by private contractor Meridian Bioscience in Cincinnati, US -were to contain a particular strain of influenza A - the viral family that causes most flu worldwide. But instead of choosing a strain from the hundreds of recently circulating influenza A viruses, the firm chose the 1957 pandemic strain.

We’ve spent $40 billion on "Homeland Security" in 2004 and will spend some $50 billion in 2005, and now we have a lab mailing out a deadly flu virus to thousands of unsuspecting labs - it boggles the mind.
Meridian Bioscience Backs 2005 Outlook

"While a few H2N2 laboratory acquired infections have been documented in the past, the likelihood of laboratory-acquired influenza infection is considered low when proper biosafety precautions are followed," Meridian said in a statement. "The risk for the general population is also considered low." The WHO also has said the risk of an outbreak is slight.



Ex-AIG Chief Gave Wife $2B in Shares
Greenberg resigned as president and CEO of the New York-based insurer on March 14, three days after he had transferred 41.4 million shares — worth $2.2 billion at Tuesday's closing share price of $53.20 — to his wife, Corinne P. Greenberg.