Quick Overview

• U.S. Productivity rose 1.8%.
  

• U.S. Unit labor costs rose 2.1%.
  

• The Fed kept the federal funds rate unchanged and said that while tightening credit conditions had increased risks, inflation was still its main concern.
  

• YoY Retail sales in the U.K. were up 3.1%.
  

• The International Coffee Organization left its estimate of 2007-2008 world coffee production unchanged at 112.0 million bags. World consumption was raised from 119.5 million bags to 120 million bags.
  
• Australia's central bank announced Wednesday it is raising official interest rates by one-quarter percentage point to 6.5 percent — the first rate movement in nine months.
  

• Japan's bank lending rose 0.3% in July.
  

• Japan's July foreign reserves hit record high of $923 bil.
  

Quick Overview

• The U.K.'s manufacturing index increased from 103.1 to 103.3 in June.
  
  

• The USDA said:
  56% of the corn crop is rated good to excellent, down from 58%
  56% of the soybean crop is rated good to excellent, down from 58%
  69% of the spring wheat crop is rated good to excellent, up from 68%.
  54% of the cotton crop is rated good to excellent -- unchanged.
  

U.S. Housing Is Among `Biggest Bubbles,' Rogers Says
``This is the only time in world history when people were able to buy houses with no money down and in fact, in some cases, the builders gave them money for a down payment,'' Rogers said. ``So this bubble is the worst we've had in housing and it's going to be the worst before its over cleaning it out.''

Updates resume August 5

Quick Overview

• Treasury’s Henry Paulson said the U.S. government will hit its $8.965-trillion debt limit in early October and asked Congress to raise it.
  

• U.S. Capital markets are losing market share to overseas competitors, but it is the bond market rather than equities that is losing ground to foreign competition, a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed.
  

• The Chinese government increased bank reserve requirements - again.
  

• Japan's industrial production increased 1.2% in June.
  

• The USDA said that:
  58% of the corn crop rated good to excellent, down from 62%.
  58% of the soybean crop rated good to excellent, down from 61%.
  68% of the spring wheat crop rated good to excellent, down from 75%.
  54% of the cotton crop rated good to excellent, down from 56%.
  

Franco Is Still Dead, and Housing Is Still Bust: Caroline Baum

Residential investment, as it's referred to in the gross domestic product accounts, may not be the real threat to the U.S. economy. The danger lies in the fact that ``there's a lot more household debt associated with housing'' than there was with the stock-market bubble, Carson says.

Chart of the Day (3)

Chart of the Day (2)
NYSE Weekly Advancing Issues

Chart Of the Day (1)

Quick Overview

• U.S. GDP rose 3.4%.
  

• The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment rose from 85.3 to 90.4 in July.
  

• YoY consumer prices in Japan fell 0.2% in June.
  

• Goldman Sachs thinks crude oil prices have the potential to spike to a $100 a barrel by the end of summer unless Middle East production increases.
  
  

Coke named global brand king
Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Marlboro and Microsoft have been named among the top 20 most valuable brands in the world, according to consultancy Interbrand's annual best global brands report.

Hidden U.S. subprime losses may mirror Japan bank crisis
"The Japanese experience of holding large losses as opposed to taking a hit and moving on was a direct cause of the Japanese malaise," ..

Quick Overview

• Wall Street suffered one of its worst losses of 2007, as investors succumbed to worry about the derivatives market.
  

• U.S. Durable goods orders rose 1.4% in June. Excluding transport, orders fell 0.5% MoM.
  

• U.S. New home sales were down 6.6% MoM. For the first half of 2007, new home sales were down 22%.
  

• The poor performance of many mortgage loans will worsen substantially through the rest of the year, according to Moody's.
  

• Home prices in the U.K. increased 0.1% MoM.
  

• The U.S. DoE said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 71 billion cubic feet last week to 2.763 trillion cubic feet.
  

• USDA is reporting the discovery of Asian soybean rust in three fields in Oklahoma, the first findings of rust in that state.

Quick Overview

• Existing homes sales fell in June for a fourth straight month, declining 3.8%, the National Association of Realtors said.
  

• The Federal Reserve's Beige Book said that economic activity continued to expand in all twelve districts.

• The U.S. economy is "performing well" and defaults on commercial and industrial loans by banks remain "low," New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner said.
  

• Consumer prices in Australia rose 1.2% QoQ, and 2.1% YoY.
  

• GDP in South Korea rose 4.9% YoY.
  

• New Zealand's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 8.25 percent.
  

• The Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 1.1 million barrels last week at 351.0 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline rose 800,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 2.9 million barrels.
  Gasoline demand was up 1.2% YoY
  Distillate demand was up 2.8% YoY
  

$100-a-barrel oil may be only a few months away
The $100-a-barrel oil that Goldman Sachs Group said would prevail by 2009 may be only a few months away.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. economy is not at risk of a credit crunch despite continuing troubles in high-risk subprime mortgages, Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser said.
  

• The Feds Richmond's index of manufacturing unchanged at 4.0 in July,
  
  

• Retail sales in Canada rose 2.8% in May.

Ultra-Flexible Fiber Optics on the Way
In standard fiber, the light signal leaks out at bends or turns and "with two 90-degree turns, the signal is lost," Corning spokesman Dan Collins said. "This design relies on nanostructures that serve as a mirror or a guardrail, and as the fiber is turned or bent, the light doesn't leak out. We have wrapped the fiber around a ball point pen and it retains its effectiveness."

Quick Overview

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson said that problems in the subprime mortgage loan sector could be contained and would not hurt the overall economy. He also repeated that a strong dollar was in the U.S. interest and currency values should be set in free and open markets.
  

• The USDA said there were 10.737 million head of cattle on feed on July 1st, down 1% YoY.
  

• The USDA said frozen pork inventories were up 14% YoY.
  

• The USDA said that:
  62% of the corn crop was good to excellent, down from 64% last week.
  61% of the soybean crop was good to excellent, down from 62% last week.
  75% of the spring wheat crop was good to excellent, down from 76% last week.
  56% of the cotton crop was good to excellent, up from 55% last week.
  
  

• F.O. Licht, increased its estimate of the world 2006-2007 sugar crop by 5.5 million tons to 167.3 million tons.
  

• The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year period, congressional investigators say.
  
  

• Starbucks Corp will raise U.S. prices on coffee, lattes and other drinks by an average of 9 cents a cup :((

Dollar's Bear Market Slide More Boon Than Bane for George Bush
The currency has lost 13.2 percent since January 2001, when George W. Bush took office, the most under any president since at least Gerald Ford, who left the White House in 1977. That's based on a Federal Reserve index that tracks the dollar against the currencies of 38 U.S. trading partners, including Germany, Japan and Canada.

Researchers develop inexpensive, easy process to produce solar panels
Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets.
"The process is simple," said lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT's Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations."