Quick Overview

• China will likely see its trade surplus hit 150 bln $ for 2006, with foreign exchange reserves to exceed one trillion $ by the end of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
  
  
  

• The U.S. Commerce Department said that personal incomes were up 0.5% in September, and consumer spending was up 0.1%.
  

• The Commerce Department said the core rate of personal consumption was up 2.4% YoY
  
  

Climate change 'brings huge cost'
Climate change could cut global growth by a fifth, costing up to £3.68 trillion in total, unless drastic action is taken, a review is to warn.
But taking action now would cost just 1% of global gross domestic product, economist Sir Nicholas Stern says.

GAO chief warns economic disaster looms
Their basic message is this: If the United States government conducts business as usual over the next few decades, a national debt that is already $8.5 trillion could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation. That's almost as much as the total net worth of every person in America — Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and those Google guys included.
A hole that big could paralyze the U.S. economy; according to some projections, just the interest payments on a debt that big would be as much as all the taxes the government collects today.
And every year that nothing is done about it, Walker says, the problem grows by $2 trillion to $3 trillion.

Morgan Stanley, announced a $3bn plan to invest in carbon trading
The drive to tackle climate change gathered pace on Thursday as Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, announced a $3bn plan to invest in the carbon trading market amid mounting evidence that some US states are growing more sympathetic to international action.

Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Commerce Department said that its first estimate of real GDP was up an annual rate of 1.6% in the third quarter, the weakest performance in three years. Housing was cited as the main drag.
  

• The core rate of personal consumption expenditures was up 2.4% YoY in the third quarter.
  

• The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment increased from 85.4 to 93.6 in October, more than expected.
  

• The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics estimated their wheat crop at 9.5 million tons, down from 25 million tons a year ago.
  

• (Bloomberg) -- Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators placed a record amount of bets the yen will decline against the dollar, according to weekly data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
  

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said the Indian economy was moving at a rapid pace and hoped the rate of growth would reach 10 percent soon. 'At one time, eight to nine percent growth was unthinkable.
  

• FT-- The Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank are expected to keep their key policy interest rates unchanged at 0.25 per cent (on Tuesday) and 3.25 per cent (on Thursday) respectively but further monetary tightening can be expected from both before the end of the year.
  

Wheat lower in spite of world output warning
The IGC said a global deficit of about 64m tons was likely as world consumption was forecast to rise to a record 1,621 tons. In spite of the recent fall in energy prices and higher grain prices, demand from the ethanol sector was expected to rise by 20m tons to 67m tons, according to the IGC.

Cheney confirms that detainees were subjected to water-boarding
"It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Quick Overview

• The Commerce Department reported the median price for a new home sold in September was $217,100, down 9.7 % from September 2005. This is the lowest median price for a new home since September 2004 and the largest year-over-year decline since December 1970.
  

• Sales of new homes rose by 5.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 1.075 million homes This is second consecutive increase in sales following three months of declines.
  

• Durable goods orders posted their biggest increase in more than six years, rising 7.8% in September.
  
  

• First-time U.S. jobless claims rose 8,000 to 308,000 last week.
  
  

• Yuan central parity rate set at new high of 7.8940 to dollars versus 7.9007
  
  

• Zinc stocks on the London Metals Exchange fell 1,750 tons to 113,900 tons, the lowest level since 1991.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 19 billion cubic feet at 3.461 trillion cubic feet.

Quick Overview

• The Fed kept the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25%, as expected.
  

• The National Association of Realtors said U.S. existing home sales were at an annual rate of 6.18 million units in September, down 1.9% MoM.
  

• The number of existing homes for sale dropped 2.4% to 3.75 million, a 7.3 month supply.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were down 3.3 million barrels to 332.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were down 2.8 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil were up 700,000 barrels.
  

• AWB Ltd. reduced its estimate of Australia's wheat crop from 13.5 to 10.0 million tons.
  

• Consumer prices in Australia were up 3.9% YoY,
  

• Business confidence in Germany increased from 104.9 to 105.3 in October, more than expected.
  

• Former Chinese central bank adviser Yu Yongding said that China should allow the yuan to appreciate faster and that China should abandon its export promotion policy.

Can Israel Last? Maybe.
Mr. Bush seems to be losing his wars. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, which would probably be a good thing. But if I’m right, when the United States is forced out of Iraq, American influence in the region will decline precipitately. For at least a decade, and perhaps forever, the US will not send troops to the region. The Moslem world will regard itself, correctly, as having defeated the Great Satan, and will no longer fear Washington. American control of Pakistan will probably vanish and, bingo, there’s the Islamic Bomb. Presumably the American puppets, such as Saudi Arabia, will blow with the prevailing winds.

60 percent increase over the last five years in government corruption convictions .. the Justice Department generally tries to keep a low profile on government corruption cases in the months before an election to avoid unfairly influencing voters

Quick Overview

• Euro zone industrial orders rose by 3.7 % in August from July and by 14.3 % YoY.
  
  

• Rumors circulated that Japan may be about to intervene in the currency market to prop up the currency.
  
  

• Mexico's trade deficit was $1.35 billion in September, more than double expectations, as imports jumped almost 18 % YoY.
  

• The World Bank says India would become the third largest economy after China and the US by 2025.
  

• Corn prices in Chicago rose to the highest in more than two years on speculation demand for ethanol and U.S. grain exports will outpace supplies.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. central bank is expected to hold interest rates steady for the third straight month when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.
  

• Japan's top financial diplomat said on Monday he was not expecting further declines in the value of the yen , and added that he saw Japan's economy staying on a solid recovery path.
  

• Retail sales in Canada were up 1.0% in August.

• Bush put Social Security reform on his list of "big items" to deal with in the final two years of his presidency.

Panama votes for a bigger canal
VOTERS in Panama have decided, by a margin of four-to-one, to go ahead with a proposal to expand their famous canal. Although relatively few turned out for the referendum on Sunday October 22nd, the result was decisive, with some 78% in favour of the plan to open the route to more and bigger ships.

Quick Overview

• YoY Canada's consumer prices were up 0.7%
  

• GDP in the U.K. was up 0.7% in the third quarter and up 2.8% YoY
  

• OPEC late yesterday announced that it reached an agreement to cut production by 1.2 mln barrels a day starting on November 1st .
  

• Virginia became the 15th U.S. state with Asian rust in its soybean fields. Asian rust may impact spring plating decisions for soybeans .
  

• The USDA said there were 11.385 million head of cattle on feed, up 8.6% YoY.
  

• The USDA said there were 464 million pounds of frozen pork in storage, up 7.5% YoY. Frozen bellies in storage were 10.25 million pounds, down 27% YoY.
  
  

• The USDA said there were 779 million pounds of frozen orange juice concentrate in storage down 37% YoY.
  
  
  

Countdown Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”

Quick Overview

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional index of manufacturing fell from -.4 to -.7, weaker than expected.
  

• The Conference Board's U.S. index of leading indicators was up 0.1% in September to 137.7. Five of the ten components showed positive gains.
  

• YoY China's industrial production increased 16.1% in September.
  

• Retail sales in the U.K. were down 0.4% in September.
  

• The U.S. Energy Department said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 53 billion cubic feet to 3.442 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are up 13% YoY.
  

The limits of liberty: We're all suspects now
And here is the interesting thing that Havel put his finger on: no matter how brutal or ruthless the regime, the act of depriving people of their freedom starts the stopwatch on that regime's inevitable demise. What he was saying was that in modern times a state can only thrive in the fullest sense when individuals are accorded maximum freedom.

Britain has joined the US, China and Russia to block a proposed ban on cluster bombs in the wake of extensive use of the weapons during the war in Lebanon.
Israeli forces dropped an estimated 1m cluster bomblets in southern Lebanon this summer - 90% of which were dropped in the last three days of the conflict, a new report from Landmine Action said yesterday. The weapons have left a trail of unexploded munitions that is killing between three and four civilians each day and impeding relief work.