Quick Overview

• The number of workers filing initial unemployment claims rose by 19,000 last week to 297,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
  
  

• U.S. Housing starts rose 15% in January, the biggest jump in 33 years, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
  
  

• The price of imported goods rose 1.3% in January, but just 0.2% excluding oil prices, the Labor Department said Thursday
  
  

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's index of business activity increased from 3.3 to 15.4 in February, stronger than expected.
  

• Retail sales in the U.K. were down 1.3% in January, the biggest drop in over a year.
  

• Argentina's gross domestic product expanded 9.1 percent in 2005, its fastest in 13 years, as construction and agriculture led the economy to its third straight year of robust growth
  

• The DoE said that underground supplies of natural gas were down 102 billion cubic feet to 2.266 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are now up 24% from a year ago.
  

• The USDA Drought Monitor continues to show drought conditions in the south-central U.S., reaching up to South Dakota and Illinois.
  
  
  

• Up to 15 to 20% of the wheat belt (HRW) will be vulnerable Saturday morning to bitter arctic cold temperatures in areas where enough snow cover fails to develop. The main threat to the crop is in northern Kansas and southern Nebraska."