Quick Overview

• Macquarie foresaw big falls in global oil inventories and said the huge surplus of oil in tankers at sea could be gone by summer.
  

• U.S. durable goods orders rose 0.5% in February January's # were revised up from 2.6% to 3.9%
  

• U.S. new home sales fell 2.2% MoM and down 13.0% YoY
  

• The Mortgage Bankers Association said that its index of mortgage applications fell 4.2% last week.
  

• Fitch Rating Services cut the credit rating for Portugal one step to AA-.
  

• Industrial new orders in the EU fell 0.2% MoM, but rose 6.3% YoY
  

• Services and manufacturing index in the Euro area rose from 53.7 to 55.5 in March
  

• YoY Japan's exports rose 45% in February -- Imports rose 30%.
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 7.3 million barrels last week to 351.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline fell 2.7 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 300,000 barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 80.6% to 81.1% of capacity
  Gasoline demand rose 1.2% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 0.9% YoY.
  

• Figures from Hong Kong Airport Authority showed that cargo volume rose 30% YoY in February to 257,000 tonnes.
  

• Air cargo demand is rocketing in response to global economic recovery, says Lufthansa Cargo CEO Carsten Spohr.
  

• (FT) China’s second-largest mobile operator has announced it will remove Google’s search function from new handsets developed with the US company in the first concrete fallout of the clash with Beijing over internet censorship.
  (Spiegel) Google has stopped playing by the Chinese rules and moved its search engine to Hong Kong. The move allows the company to keep one foot in China while fulfilling its promise to end self-censorship.
  

• (WSJ) Bank of America said it would offer more borrowers reductions in their mortgage-loan balances in the latest twist on efforts to avert foreclosures

• The Department of Transportation’s second-highest official told senators that DOT’s preference for freight shipping is keep goods on waterways and rail as much as possible, getting them away from trucks except for the final delivery