Quick Overview

• Retail sales in Canada were up 1.7% in April and 6.7 YoY,
  

• Canada's composite index of leading indicators was up 0.3% in May.
  

• Japanese Finance Minister said that a rapid rise in interest rates would hurt the Japanese economy as it has not fully emerged from deflation.
  
  

• Demand for ordinary wines is falling and tough competition from strong New World brands mean some European wine makers are finding it increasingly difficult to sell all they produce. The European Union will therefore step in to buy 1.5 billion liters of surplus wine and distill it into biofuels.
  
  

• Worldwide, 38.7 billion liters of ethanol should be produced this year versus 33.6 billion in 2005, Peter Baron, head of the International Sugar Organization said.
  
  

• Venezuela plans to produce significant amounts of ethanol for domestic use with Cuban support Venezuelan officials said.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were up 1.4 million barrels to 347.1 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were up 300,000 barrels
  Supplies of and heating oil supplies were up 2.7 million barrels.
  

• Japan may, by the end of June, allow U.S. beef back in the country.