Quick Overview

• Global energy needs will surge 50% by 2030 and prices will rise if capacity is not significantly increased, according to a report issued Monday by the International Energy Agency, the Associated Press reported.
  
  

• U.S. regular gasoline pump prices dropped 23 cents in the past two weeks to an average of $2.45 a gallon for three grades, analyst Trilby Lundberg reported in her latest survey.
  
  

• A Federal Reserve survey said that one-fourth of U.S. banks reported a decline in mortgage loan demand over the past few months.
  

• YoY Japan's household spending was up 1.0% in September, the first increase in six months.
  

• Factory production in the U.K. was down 0.3% in September.
  

Chart of the day

Four Week Average of Public Short Sales divided by Total Short Sales

Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head
It seems too good to be true: a new source of near-limitless power that costs virtually nothing, uses tiny amounts of water as its fuel and produces next to no waste. If that does not sound radical enough, how about this: the principle behind the source turns modern physics on its head.

Quick Overview

• With just three months left before he leaves office, Alan Greenspan raised a warning to Congress: The country could face "serious economic disruptions" if bloated budget deficits are not curbed.
  
  

• U.S. payrolls rose by 56,000 jobs in October and the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 5% from 5.1%, the Labor Department said Friday.
  
  

• Rail freight traffic fell for the week ended Oct. 29 but intermodal volume levels continued to climb, reaching the sixth-highest weekly volume ever, the Association of American Railroads reported.
  

• The Euro zone unemployment rate improved from 8.5% to 8.4% in September.
  

• Factory orders in Germany were up 2.8% in September, better than expected.
  

• Brazilian motor vehicle sales fell 4.6 percent and production fell 7.9 percent in October from September, reinforcing expectations that industrial output and the economy may shrink in Latin America's largest country in the third quarter.
  

• Canada's unemployment rate improved from 6.7% to 6.6% in October, the lowest in three decades.
  

• Berkshire Hathaway Inc. , the investment company run by billionaire Warren Buffett, on Friday said quarterly profit fell 48 percent to the lowest level in nearly four years, hurt by nearly $3 billion of losses from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
  

Quick Overview

• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress Thursday that economic fallout from the recent spate of devastating hurricanes should prove fleeting and the economy remains sturdy.
  
  

• Nonfarm business productivity grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.1% from July through September, the Labor Department said Thursday. It grew 2.1% in the second quarter and 3.2% during the first three months of the year.
  
  

• Unit labor costs, which the Federal Reserve watches as an indicator of inflation risks, fell 0.5%, after swelling 1.8% in the second quarter and 2.2%.
  
  

• The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index fell by 0.3% to 128.8 from August's 129.2. The level was 3.3% higher than September 2004.
  
  
  

• The number of U.S. workers filing initial unemployment benefits fell to a two-month low, because of fewer hurricane-related filings, the Labor Department said. Initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell by 8,000 to 323,000 in the week that ended Oct. 29. The four-week moving average fell by 17,000 to 350,500.
  
  
  

• The Institute for Supply Management said its nonmanufacturing index, made up mostly of service-related companies, rose to 60.0 in October from a reading of 53.3 in September. Readings above 50 suggest expansion.
  
  

• The European Central Bank kept its interest rate unchanged at 2.00%.
  

• Retail sales in Australia were down 0.3% in August, weaker than expected.
  
  
  

• South Africa's gross domestic product was under-estimated between 10 and 20% as the economy had already been growing at more than 6 percent YoY for several quarters, T- Sec economist Mike Schussler said.
  
  

• Brazil's 2005-2006 soybean output is likely to reach 56.7 to-58.6 million tons, the Agriculture Ministry forecasting agency said in the first official estimates for next year's crop. Farmers may cut the area planted with soy by as much as 8 percent to 21.5 million hectares. Brazil harvested 51.1 million metric tons this year.
  
  

• The U.S. DoE said that natural gas supplies were up 29 billion cubic feet to 3.168 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are down 4% YoY.
  
  

GE eyes infrastructure growth in developing world
"This century will absolutely stress the infrastructure of the developing world in ways that none of us will ever imagine, because it's never been seen before," said Dave Calhoun, the head of GE's infrastructure business, at an analyst meeting in Cincinnati broadcast over the Internet.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. government announced that it will begin selling the 30 year Treasury bond again on February 9, 2006.
  

• Early next year, Cargill will build the largest U.S. sugar refinery in Louisiana with the ability to process 10% of the nation's sugar.
  

• Norway's central bank increased its interest rate by a quarter-percent to 2.25.
  

• Germany's unemployment rate improved from 11.2% to 11.0% in October with 4.556 million people out of work.
  

• Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, reported an 80 percent increase in third-quarter earnings Wednesday and raised its stock repurchase program to $12.5 billion from $5 billion.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Crude oil supplies were up 2.7 million barrels to 319.1 million barrels
  Unleaded supplies were up 1.0 million barrels.
  Heating oil supplies were down 1.0 million barrels.
  

Quick Overview

• The Federal Reserve as expected increased the federal funds rate for the twelfth time by a quarter-percent to 4.00%. Signaling that more increases were likely to keep a lid on inflation.
  
  
  

• The Institute of Supply Management's index of manufacturing activity fell to 59.1 from 59.4 in September, which was the highest in 13 months. Still a sign of expansion and stronger than expected.
  
  

• The U.S. Commerce Department said that construction spending was at an annual rate of $1.12 trillion in September, up 0.5% from August and a new record high.
  
  

• Florida Citrus Mutual said that an early estimate indicates that 13% of the Florida orange crop was damaged by Hurricane Wilma.
  
  

• George W. Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion in emergency funding on Tuesday to prepare the United States for a feared avian-influenza pandemic

• World merchandise trade in volume terms is predicted to accelerate by around 7% in 2006, slightly up on this year’s projected increase of 6.5%, the World Trade Organisation said.

Gold May Rise as Demand Outpaces Mining Output, Survey Shows
..A Beijing jeweler with annual revenue of $100 million reported gold sales jumped 15 percent this year, with some products up 30 percent, Lassonde said...

Spending up, income up, factories strong

Quick Overview

• The European Union's latest offer to cut farm import tariffs has failed to break a deadlock among members of the World Trade Organization, who are seeking to hammer out a global trade treaty by December, a senior trade official said Monday.
  

• U.S. personal income was up 1.7% in September after a 0.9% drop in August.
  

• US Consumer spending was up 0.5%.
  

• The National Association of Purchasing Management's Chicago index of business activity increased from 60.5 to 62.9 in October, stronger than expected.
  

• Canada's GDP was up 0.5% in August and up 2.7% YoY, stronger than expected.
  

• Japans unemployment rate was down 0.1% in September to 4.2%, the lowest level in seven years.
  

• YoY Japans consumer price index was down 0 .3% in September.
  

• Japan is expected to ease the ban on U.S. beef imports as early as the end of 2005, according to a media report Sunday. "Based on the assumption that all precautions are taken as requested, we consider the difference in risk between U.S. and Japanese beef to be small," said panel chairman Yasuhiro Yoshikawa.
  
  

• Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) bid $9.2 billion for rival Placer Dome Inc. (PDG), a deal that would create one of the world's biggest gold miners with annual output of 8.3 or 8.4 million ounces.
  
  

• The Panama Canal Authority’s largest customers are forecasting a 12% increase in traffic moving between Asia and the US east coast in 2006 as trade between the US and China shows no sign of slowing.

Bank of Japan Says Deflation to End This Fiscal Year; Policy Shift Looms
Japan will end more than seven years of deflation this fiscal year, the central bank said, increasing the prospects it will raise interest rates from almost zero.

Satellite data reveals Beijing as air pollution capital of world
Alarm about the perilous state of the environment has gathered pace in recent years. China is the world's second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, and the World Bank has warned it is home to 16 of the planet's 20 most air-polluted cities.

Olive oil 'cuts cancer risk'
Scientists at the University of Ulster found a mixture of compounds, called phenols, extracted from virgin olive oil could offer protection against colon cancer, the second highest cause of cancer fatalities in the US.

What's Off Virginia? 'There's No Guarantee'
Lurking off Virginia are tens of thousands of mustard gas shells and hundreds of tons of radioactive waste in at least five ocean dump zones created by the Army decades ago.

No irrational exuberance as Greenspan departs
But the flipside of the strong growth, which has sucked in imports and capital from around the world, is a giant current account deficit now heading for an unprecedented £800bn, or 6.5% of gross domestic product. Mr Greenspan stands accused of allowing the dotcom bubble to inflate so far in the late 1990s that it burst spectacularly, at which point he slashed interest rates and allow another bubble - in housing - to inflate.

The Indictment

Voluntary Green Power Purchasing up 1000 Percent in 5 Years
Green power currently accounts for about 2 percent of America’s electricity supply, but voluntary purchasing of renewable energy is accelerating development of new renewable energy sources. The report, from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), "Green Power Marketing in the United States: A Status Report," shows that renewable generating capacity in the United States installed to meet voluntary green power purchasing soared from 167 MW in 2000 to more than 2,200 MW by the end of 2004.

OECD warns on deteriorating US deficits
It warned that the continued deterioration of the US current account deficit posed a risk to the US and to the global economy, at a time when the US deficit has risen above 6 per cent of gross domestic product and is forecast to rise to 7 per cent of GDP next year.

Quick Overview

• U.S. consumer sentiment fell in October to the lowest level in 13 years, the University of Michigan reported Friday in its monthly consumer sentiment index.
  
  
  
  
• The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.8% in the third quarter, an increase from the second quarter’s 3.3%, the Commerce Department said Friday.
  
  
  

• Surface trade amid the United States, Canada and Mexico rose 12.3% in August from a year earlier to a total of $60.2 billion, the highest monthly level ever recorded, the Department of Transportation reported Thursday.
  
  

• The core rate of U.S. personal consumption expenditures, increased at an annual rate of 1.3% in the third quarter, down from 1.7% in the second quarter and less than expected.
  

• Mexico's central bank pushed interest rates lower for a third straight month on Friday to help boost a struggling economy.
  

• Japan's household spending was down 0.2% in September and Industrial production was up 0.2% -- less than expected.