Friday, May 20, 2005

Quick Overview

  • America's bloated trade deficits probably wouldn't be helped by China revamping its currency system as the Bush administration has been pressing Beijing to do, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday. He also said that it was difficult to know when the economy was balanced and the federal funds rate had reached a neutral level.

  • Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner on Friday said the unemployment rate climbed to 12.3 percent in March from 12.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

  • China said that on June 1st they will be raising export tariffs on 74 categories of textiles.

  • Vietnam reported its 53rd death from the deadly bird flu virus.

  • The USDA said that there were 10.639 million head of cattle on feed as of May 1st, up 2.5% from a year ago. April placements were up 4% from a year ago and marketing’s were down 5%. The report is called neutral to bearish

  • The USDA said that there were 89.5 million pounds of frozen bellies in storage on April 30th, up 85% YoY. Frozen pork totaled 563.5 million pounds, up 26% YoY.

  • The USDA said that, as of April 30th, there were 1.66 billion pounds of frozen orange juice in U.S. cold storage, down 16% YoY.

  • YoY Consumer prices in Canada were up 2.4% in April, while the core rate was up 1.7%.

  • France's GDP was up 0.2% in the first quarter.

  • There is a concern about the weather and the newly-planted corn crop.

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