• Retail sales jumped 1.7% in June and up 9.6% YoY, while the CPI is flat in June and up 2.5% YoY.
  
  

• Calm consumer price inflation in June did little to change the market outlook for further U.S. interest rate increases at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
  
  

• Several private meteorologists are calling for extremely hot weather over the next two weeks in the Midwest, which could tax developing crops.
  
  
  

• Green coffee imports by the 25 European Union countries, rose 1.9% in 2004 to 47.85 million 60-kilogram bags, the European Coffee Federation, or the ECF, said in a report Wednesday.
  
  
• China's Money Supply Surges as Foreign Reserves Swell
  M2, which includes cash and all deposits, rose 15.7 percent from a year earlier