Quick Overview

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were down 6.4 million barrels to 315.0 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were down 4.3 million barrels
  Heating oil supplies were up 500,000 barrels.
  Refineries were running at 86.8% of capacity last week.
  Crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve remained unchanged at 700.5 million barrels.
  Underground supplies of natural gas were up 36 billion cubic feet last week to 2.669 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are now down 3% from a year ago.

• U.S. jobless claims were down 1,000 last week to 319,000. Job losses due to Hurricane Katrina were estimated at 10,000.
  

• U.S. wholesale sales were up 0.5% in July while inventories were down 0.1%.
  

• Today's USDA Drought Monitor shows extreme drought conditions hanging on in northern Illinois and southwest Arkansas.
  

• Japans index of coincident economic indicators was at 22.2% in July, an sign of contraction. Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui said on Thursday the BOJ would need to make sure deflation was well and truly beaten before scrapping its ultra-easy monetary policy, and he appeared to leave the door open to leaving rates at zero even once the policy was abandoned.
  

• The unemployment rate in Australia remained at 5.0% in August, the lowest in 29 years.