Happy Holidays!
(Updates resume Jan. 3)

Scramble for the Atmosphere (Monbiot)
..the barrister Polly Higgins laid out a different approach. Her declaration of planetary rights invests ecosystems with similar legal safeguards to those won by humans after the second world war(2). It changes the legal relationship between humans, the atmosphere and the biosphere from ownership to stewardship. It creates a global framework for negotiation which gives nation states less discretion to dispose of ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Quick Overview

• Japan kept interests rate unchanged at 0.1%.
  
  

• Canada's wholesale sales rose 0.3% in October
  
  

• Global cocoa production for 2009-10 is expected to fall 63,000 tons short of demand, which would be the fourth consecutive year of deficits and wider than a previous forecast of 56,000 tons, BNP Paribas said.

Quick Overview

• US attempts to break the deadlock at the UN conference in Copenhagen by backing an offer from developed countries to provide poorer nations with $100bn per year by 2020 to fight climate change
  

• Standard and Poor's cut Greece's credit rating from A- to BBB+.
  

• YoY Canada’s consumer prices rose 1.0%
  

• U.K.'s retail sales fell 0.3% in November.
  

• U.S. jobless claims rose 7,000 last week to 480,000.
  

• As of last week 2009-2010 U.S. export inspections of:
  Corn are up 5% YoY.
  Soybeans are up 40% YoY.
  Wheat improved from down 31% to down 30% YoY.
  Cotton is down 37% YoY.
  

• India's sugar production in the first two months of the marketing year that began Oct. 1 fell 9.6% YoY due to lower recovery from cane.

Quick Overview

• The Fed left interest rates unchanged and said that it expects economic conditions to warrant “exceptionally low” rates for an “extended” period.
  
  
• The EU Wednesday settled its remaining antitrust issues with Microsoft.
  
  

• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Intel for illegally using its dominant market position for a decade “to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.”
  
  

• MoM U.S. housing starts rose 8.9%. YoY November housing starts were down 7.3%.
  
  

• MoM the U.S. consumer price index rose 0.4% in November, 1.8% YoY
  

• Australia's GDP rose 0.5% YoY
  

• Canada manufacturing sales rose 2.0% in October
  

• EU consumer prices rose 1.0% YoY
  

• Japan's tertiary index rose 0.5%
  

• Norway raised its interest rate to 1.75%
  

• U.K. Unemployment rose to 7.9% from 7.8%
  

• Brazil harvested 39.5 million bags of coffee this year, up from a September estimate of 39.0 million bags
  

• Brazil estimates 2009-2010 production of 34.6 million tons of sugar and 25.8 billion liters of ethanol from 612 million tons of cane.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 3.7 million barrels to 332.4 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline rose 900,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 2.3 million barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 81.1% to 80.0%
  Gasoline demand rose 1.0% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 6.6% YoY

• India's production of monsoon-sown rice may total 71.65 million metric tons, up from 69.45 million tons estimated last month, the farm ministry said.

• Cocoa’s trading at the highest level in 32 years amid concerns that the market will experience a supply shortfall for a fourth successive season in 2009-10.

Regulators Resist Volcker Wandering Warning of Too-Big-to-Fail
(Bloomberg) -- Paul A. Volcker visited nine cities in five countries in the past eight weeks to warn that bankers and regulators “have not come anywhere close to responding with necessary vigor” to the worst economic crisis in 70 years.
.. He told executives there that the changes they’ve proposed are “like a dimple.”

Quick Overview

• YoY U.S. producer prices rose 2.4% in November
  

• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index fell to 2.6 from 23.5 in November
  

• The Federal Reserve meets today and is expected to keep the federal funds rate unchanged at 0.125%.

• (FT) China has banned individuals from registering internet domain names and launched a review of millions of existing personal websites in the toughest government censorship drive so far on the internet

• Czarnikow in late November forecast a 2009/10 global sugar deficit of 13.5 million tonnes, versus a deficit of 15.8 million tonnes in 2008/09.
• The China Sugar Association has estimated that sugar output for the 2009-10 crop year, starting Oct. 1, will fall to 12 million tons from the previous year's 12.43 million tons.
  

Quick Overview

• White House advisor Lawrence Summers expects the economy to start adding new jobs in the spring of 2010.
  

• Industrial production in the EU fell 0.7% in October and down 10.2% YoY

• YoY Chinas M2 money supply rose 29.7%
  

• Employment in the EU fell 0 .5% in Q3 and down 2.0% YoY
  

• Sugar crushing in Brazil's centre-south cane hub in the second half of November totalled 25.4 million tonnes, down 16 % YoY, according to the Sugar Cane Industry Association, Unica. The fall was due to the impact of persistent wet weather.
• Brazil said its sugar production in 2009-10 was likely to drop to 34m tonnes, down from an official forecast of 36.7m tonnes in September.

• Cocoa traders are concerned about production shortfalls in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which account for 56% of the world’s cocoa output.
  
  
  

• Goldmans top man said the firm wasn't just trying to make money; it was doing "God's work." No kidding!

Greece defies Europe as EMU crisis turns deadly serious
Mr Papandreou has good reason to throw the gauntlet at Europe's feet. Greece is being told to adopt an IMF-style austerity package, without the devaluation so central to IMF plans. The prescription is ruinous and patently self-defeating. Public debt is already 113pc of GDP. The Commission says it will reach 125pc by late 2010. It may top 140pc by 2012.

Quick Overview

• U.S. retail sales rose 1.3% in November.
  

• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose from 67.4 to 73.4
  

• YOY India’s industrial production rose 10.3%
  

• YoY U.K. producer prices rose 2.9%.

Quick Overview

• U.S. Jobless claims rose 17,000 to 474,000.
  
  

• The USDA's 2009-2010 U.S. ending stocks estimate of:
  Corn was raised from 1.625 to 1.675 billion bushels.
  Some 12% of the crop is still sitting in the snow!
  Soybeans were reduced from 270 to 255 million bushels.
  Wheat was raised from 885 to 900 million bushels.
  Sugar was kept at 1.016 million tons.
  Cotton was lowered from 4.90 to 4.50 million bales.
  
  

• The USDA's 2009-2010 world ending stocks estimate of:
  Corn was kept at 132 million tons.
  Soybeans were kept at 57 million tons.
  Wheat was raised from 188 to 191 million tons.
  Cotton was lowered from 54 to 52 million tons.
  

• OJ was lowered from 136 to 135 million boxes.

• Unica pegged Brazil's center-south sugarcane crush at 538.2 million tons for the 2009-10 crop compared to its previous estimate of 529.5 million tons

• Uttar Pradesh is asking the central government to lift its restriction on raw sugar from Brazil amid severe shortages and rising prices.

• YoY China’s factory output rose 19.2 %

Nuremberg Revisited: Obama Administration Files To Dismiss Case Against John Yoo
If successful in this case, the Obama Administration will succeed in returning the world to the rules leading to the war crimes at Nuremberg. Quite a legacy for the world’s newest Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) China, the world’s largest steel consumer, will impose provisional duties on some U.S. and Russian imports following anti-dumping and subsidy investigations, escalating a trade spat started in September.

• The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association said that its index of mortgage applications rose 8.5% last week
  

• U.S. wholesales rose 1.2% in October
  

• U.S. Inventories rose 0.3%.
  

• Japan’s GDP rose 0.3% in the third quarter, but fell5.1% YoY
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• Greece's new socialist government promised Wednesday to step up efforts to reduce the growing deficit after a ratings agency downgraded the country's debt rating.

• London bankers reacted with fury to UK government plans to levy a 50% super tax on banks’ bonus payouts.
  

• Spain has its credit outlook cut to negative from stable by the ratings agency Standard & Poor's, rattling European markets.

• MoM Japanese core machinery orders fell 4.5% in October

• Australian employers added 31,200 workers in November
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 3.8 million barrels to 336.1 million barrels
  Supplies of gasoline rose 2.2 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil supplies fell 700,000 barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 79.7% to 81.1% of capacity
  Gasoline demand rose 1.2% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 8.3% YoY
  

• Sugar output in Brazil’s Center South is estimated at 28.9 million metric tons, down from November’s projection of 29.3 million tons.
  

• With roughly 12% of the U.S. corn crop still in the field, some are concerned that crop could lodge, or fall down, due to the snow and winds approaching 50 miles per hour.

No update today

Quick Overview

• (FT) Commodity markets remained under pressure as risk appetite weakened amid concerns about the sustainability of global economic recovery
  

Quick Overview

• German factory orders fell 2.1% in October
  
  

• World Bank: The number of malnourished as a percentage of the developing world's population has also started to rise again. After falling from 20 percent in 1990-92 to just under 16 percent in 2003-05, it now stands at almost 18 percent. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says a long-running decline in farm investment is the main culprit behind food shortages and estimates $44 billion in new investment is needed annually to boost agriculture in developing countries.
  
  

• NY ADL new high
  

• Indonesia may import 500,000 metric tons of white sugar starting in December to meet an expected domestic supply shortfall in 2010
  
  

• (Reuters) - Big, full-service brokerages have lost a significant chunk of business to online firms that told small investors they are better off making their own decisions

• (Bloomberg)... Coffee lowers the risk of Type 2 diabetes by increasing the body’s ability to use
  insulin to convert blood sugar to energy, previous research has shown. ...
  
  

It's a return to the Star Chamber as Europe finally tramples Magna Carta into the dust If you have a spare evening, read the Magna Carta

Quick Overview

• U.S. unemployment rate improved from 10.2% to 10.0%
  

• U.S. Factory orders rose 0.6% in October.
  

• Canada’s unemployment rate improved from 8.6% to 8.5% in November

• Cocoa futures in London rose the highest level in almost 25 years following market talk of a small crop in Ghana.

• YoY Food inflation in India rose by over 17%

• World Copper (exchanges) inventory making new high.
  

• SLV (Silver ETF) Ounces of Silver in Trust up by 2.84% in 1 week.
  

Quick Overview

• U.S. 30-year mortgages fell to new all-time low of 4.71%
  

• U.S. jobless claims were down 5,000 last week at 457,000

• The Institute of Supply Management's index of services fell from 50.6 to 48.7 in November
  

• U.S. non-farm productivity rose 4.0%
  

• U.S. labor costs fell 1.4%.
  

• EU GDP rose 0.3% in Q3
  

• Australia's retail sales rose 0.3%
  

China Grain Output May Drop 37% on Climate Change (Update1
..Research shows that for every degree warmer the atmosphere becomes the key growing period for rice to develop properly will be shortened by an average of 7-8 days and by 17 days for the winter wheat crop, Zheng said. “Yield and quality will drop accordingly,” he said.

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) -- The global economy will expand 4.4 percent in 2010 and 4.5 percent the following year as the world recovers from the credit crisis, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said.
  

• ADP Employer Services said that there was a loss of 169,000 private jobs in November
  

• The Fed said today in its Beige Book business survey: economy is improving; consumer spending is moderately higher; commercial real estate is deteriorating; home sales are up; labor market is weak.
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 2.1 million barrels to 339.9 million barrels
  Supplies of gasoline rose 4.0 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 300,000 barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 80.3% to 79.7%.
  Gasoline demand rose 0.7% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 7.7% YoY.
  

Quick Overview

• The Institute of Supply Management's index of manufacturing fell from 55.7 to 53.6 in November
  
  

• The National Association of Realtors said its index of pending home sales rose 3.7% MoM. YoY the index is up 32%.
  

• U.S. construction output rose 1.6% YoY.
  
  

• MoM U.S. retail sales rose 5.2%. YoY retail sales rose 2.6%.
  

• EU unemployment was unchanged at 9.8% in October.
  

• The Bank of Japan decided at an unscheduled policy meeting to offer up to Y10,000bn in three-month low-interest loans to commercial banks.
  

• DryShips Inc., a provider of marine transportation services for drybulk cargoes, announced that its previously announced agreement to acquire 2 Panamax vessels has been terminated since no period employment could be secured in the agreed timeframe
  

• From January to October China's iron ore import rose 36.8 %. In the same phase, domestic iron ore output reached about 702.66 million tons, up 36.04 million tons.
  

• North Korea has revalued its currency by a factor of 100, causing chaos on the streets of Pyongyang.

• Private exporters reported to the USDA export sales of 116,000 MT of corn for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2010/2011 marketing year.

• (Reuters Life!) - Reviled by the public and spurned in private, bankers have been looking for solace in adultery, according to a dating website for people seeking affairs.

• (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it would delay until mid-2010 a decision on whether to increase the amount of ethanol added to ordinary gasoline, putting off a controversial ruling with consequences for farm states and the oil and automobile industries.The delay was anticipated by traders.

• BNP Paribas Fortis forecasts world sugar demand to grow by 1% in 2009 versus the average rate of 2.66% a year over the past decade

• The default rate for commercial mortgages in the US climbed to a fresh 16-year high of 3.4%

• Australia's parliament rejected sweeping carbon-trade laws aimed at cutting greenhouse gases.

• Thirteen mills in India's key sugar-producing state of Uttar Pradesh have stopped cane crushing operations due to supply shortages.
  state government official said Wednesday.