Quick Overview

• The U.S. Commerce Department said that wholesale sales were up 1.8% in December. Wholesale inventories were down 0.5%.
  
  

• (Financial Times) The new Democratic leadership of the US Congress is pressuring the Bush administration to coerce Tokyo into acting to strengthen the yen.
  
  

• Australia's unemployment rate improved from 4.6% to 4.5% in December, the lowest in over 30 years.
  

• New Zealand's unemployment rate improved from 3.8% to 3.7%.
  

• The European Central Bank left its interest rate unchanged at 3.5%, as expected.
  

• The Bank of England left its interest rate unchanged at 5.25%, as expected.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were down 224 billion cubic feet last week to 2.347 trillion cubic feet.