Quick Overview

• Existing-home sales fell 5.3% to a nearly 12-year low in January, and the median home price fell to $170,300 from $199,800 YoY.
  

• U.K. GDP fell 1.5% in the fourth quarter
  

• Industrial new orders in the Euro area fell 5.2% MoM and 22% YoY.

• YoY EU steel production fell 45.9% in January
  

• Czarnikow increased its estimate of the 2008-2009 world sugar production deficit from 5.8 to 10.4 million tons.
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 700,000 barrels to 351.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline fell 3.4 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 300,000 barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 82.3% to 81.4% of capacity
  Gasoline demand fell 1.7% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 1.6% YoY
  

• South Africa's Chamber of Mines said the nation's gold production fell 14% in 2008 to the lowest level since 1922.
  

• Bernanke said at risk homeowners need a bailout - even if they knew they couldn't afford their home in the first place.
  

• (Reuters) - The Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming faster than previously thought, raising world sea levels and making drastic global climate change more likely than ever, international scientists said on Wednesday.