Quick Overview

• Russia has a window of opportunity in the next few months to secure entry to the World Trade Organization, says official.
  
  
• Total air cargo shipments rose 3.1% in March compared with a year earlier, following a 1.3% year-over-year drop in February, the Air Transport Association reported.

• The USDA said that 79% of the corn, 26% of the soybeans, and 39% of the cotton crops were planted. 59% of the U.S. winter wheat crop was rated good to excellent, down from 63% a week ago.
  
  
• The Florida Citrus Processors said that there were 148.2 million gallons of frozen orange juice concentrate in inventory as of April 30th, down 16% YoY.
  

• Manufacturing in the U.K. was down 1.6% in March, weaker than expected.
  
  
• Sales at U.S. wholesalers grew by 0.2% in March, while inventories increased 0.4 percent, the Commerce Department estimated Monday. Year-over-year Sales were up 7.2 percent, while inventories increased 10.8 percent.
  
  
• Increasingly Embattled, DeLay Scales Back Usual Power Plays ….threatening his career and the GOP majority he helped to build and sustain since coming to the House 20 years ago. Everywhere there are signs of a politician in retreat…as businesses fret that DeLay may be radioactive
  

• Eighty-eight members of Congress call on Bush for answers on secret Iraq plan"Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the United States was too busy with wall-to-wall coverage of a "runaway bride" to cover a bombshell report out of the British newspapers," Conyers writes. "The London Times reports that the British government and the United States government had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in 2002, before authorization was sought for such an attack in Congress, and had discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so."
  
  
• Amid rising gas prices, makers warm to diesel cars Diesels use 20 percent to 40 percent less fuel than comparable gasoline engines. And diesel fuel coming to market starting this year will have lower sulfur content, reducing emissions dramatically.
  
  
• Chile April Trade Surplus Widens on Demand for Copper
  Chile, the world's largest copper producer, said its trade surplus widened more than analysts expected in April after copper prices surged to 16-year highs.
  
  

US tourism ‘losing billions because of image
The US is losing billions of dollars as international tourists are deterred from visiting the US because of a tarnished image overseas and more bureaucratic visa policies, travel industry leaders have warned.

Only in Argentina ? ? ? ? ? Foreign debt museum opens doors
"I liked best the black hole with everything the debt swallowed -- education, families, jobs," said Fabian Jader, 34, an opening night visitor. "I feel anger and pity for the people, but above all helplessness." ...."People know absolutely nothing about how we accumulated all this debt, they only know about the misery they have seen lately," said museum director Simon Pristupin...

Freedom slips another notch

In case you hadn't noticed, the United States is turning into one of those countries where citizens can't turn around without showing their "papers."...In America, having papers has never been especially important. Until now.

US carmakers extend currency campaign
US carmakers are using growing congressional anger over the weak Chinese renminbi to boost pressure on Japan and South Korea to revalue their currencies as well, a move they hope could ease competitive pressures on the beleaguered US industry.

US defence budget will equal ROW combined "within 12 months
Defence expenditure in the US will equal that of the rest of the world combined within 12 months, making it "increasingly pressing" for European contractors to develop a "closer association" with the US, corporate finance group PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.
The US defence budget reached US$417.4 billion in 2003 - 46 per cent of the global total.

Quick Overview

• U.S. Nonfarm payroll employment rose a stronger than expected 274,000 in April, and the unemployment rate held at 5.2 percent. Jobs in the previous two months were revised up by a total 93,000. Stock traders seem to interpret much stronger-than-expected Apr. job growth as a sure sign that the Fed will continue raising interest rates.
  
  
• Tokyo's food safety commission said it would recommend the government waive mad cow disease tests for cattle younger than 21 months, a move toward lifting the ban on American beef imports to Japan.
  

• Lobbyist Had Close Contact With Bush Team
  As for the number of Abramoff lobbying team contacts with Bush officials documented in the billing records, Healy said: "We do not know how he defines 'contacts.'"
  

• Study finds decline in global press freedom .. USA is ranked 24th
  
  
• Canada's unemployment rate fell from 6.9% to 6.8% in April, the lowest in over four years.
  
  
• Manufacturing orders in Germany were up 2.2% in March, stronger than expected.
  
  
  
  

Website of the day
Moving through space, an amazing animation.

New Zealand first to levy carbon tax
The tax, planned after New Zealand signed up to the Kyoto protocol, would make polluting energy sources such as coal and oil more expensive than cleaner ones such as hydro, wind and solar..

Hedge funds get Greenspan warning on leverage
"To them, it may all seem OK until someone gets into a car crash," Bianco said, adding that Greenspan's comments in his prepared text closely mirrored what he said less than two months before LTCM collapsed.

85.5 Trillion

Tax Receipts Exceed Treasury Predictions The Treasury Department this week reported there would be a $54 billion swing from projected deficit to surplus in the April-to-June quarter, after an unanticipated gush of tax payments poured into the Treasury before the April 15 deadline.

Truths collide The uncensored Pentagon report at least allows the international public to know that there were no less than 15,527 attacks on the occupation forces from July 2004 to March 2005. In Baghdad alone, from November to March 12, there were 2,404 attacks.

Quick Overview

• Nonfarm business productivity grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.6% from January through March, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was up from a 2.1% rate in the preceding three months. The growth of unit labor costs accelerated, climbing to a 2.2% rate that was the largest in six months. In the year through March, those costs were up 2.5% - the highest rate in nearly four years.
  
  
• Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its corporate credit ratings to junk status for both General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., a decision that will increase borrowing costs and limit fund-raising options for the nation's two biggest automakers.
  
  
• Chile's economy expanded 5.0 percent in March, the slowest growth since February 2004.

• International trade through the Los Angeles region will grow by more than 14% this year to a record $302.1 billion, according to an economic study released Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground natural gas supplies were up 39 billion cubic feet last week to 1.455 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are now up 20% from a year ago.
  
  
• Compared to one year ago, U.S. 2004-2005 exports for: Corn went from -7% to -6%. Soybeans went from +17% to +18%. Wheat remained at -10%.Cotton remained at -9%.
  

• USDA Secretary said that he wants to see a national animal identification system in place by 2009. The system would track the origin of all cattle, hogs, and chickens in the U.S.
  

• USDA Secretary also announced new rules allowing greater logging and mining in undeveloped areas of the national forest.
  

• An index of U.K. services fell from 57.0 to 56.5 in April, as expected.
  

• The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment rose a larger-than-expected 11,000 last week.
  
  
• Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said on Thursday that deflation continues to plague Japan despite a recovering economy and the government must not relent in its seven-year battle to eradicate it.
  
  
• YoY Brazils April Green Coffee Exports were up 10 percent at 1.71 M Bags.
  

• The DC-96 computer, developed by Orion Multisystems, offers a peak
  computing power of 230 gigaflops and 192 gigabytes of memory for $100,000....

• The tanker market is likely to be the first shipping sector to suffer an oversupply of tonnage, leading to earnings declines for the next three years, Citigroup Smith Barney tanker analyst John Kartsonas has warned.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Is Russia in for an Enron-Style Price Shock?

UES -- which seems to work pretty well as things stand -- is to be broken up into (deep breath here) six national generation companies; 14 territorial generation companies; a state-owned hydro company; a National Grid Company; and local distribution companies. And then the interface between the generation companies and the Grid Company is to be managed by a "transmission system operator," perhaps also an "independent system operator" and a regulator to keep an eye on both.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. DoE said that last weeks crude oil supplies were up 2.6 million barrels to 327.0 million barrels. Unleaded gasoline supplies were up 2.2 million barrels and heating oil supplies were unchanged.

• The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at 691.2 million barrels, nine million barrels short of the White House's 700 million goal.
  

• The ISM's index of U.S. service sector activity dropped from 63.1 to 61.7 in April - still a sign of growth.
  

• Transport costs between Richards Bay, which has the world's largest coal export terminal, and Rotterdam dropped 7.2 percent last week to $18.62 (R114) a ton.

• The Treasury, faced with large budget deficits, said in a surprise move on Wednesday it is considering regular sales of 30-year bonds, which were suspended in 2001. A decision is expected on August 3rd.
  In Vietnam, the coffee crop is said to be too dry.

• In Brazil, wet weather has delayed the coffee harvest, but it is expected to begin soon.
  

• Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian is offering to more than double his General Motors stake to 8.8 percent in a move that raised investor confidence
  

• The European Central Bank kept its interest rate unchanged at 2.0%, as expected. The rate has not moved for almost two years.
  

• An index of services in the Euro zone slipped from 53.0 to 52.8 in April and retail sales volume in March was up 1.4% from a year ago.
  

• Australia's Reserve Bank kept its official interest rate unchanged at 5.50%
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Quick Overview

Layoff announcements by U.S. companies fell to their lowest level since Nov. 2000, outplacement firm Challenger Grey & Christmas said Tuesday.

Orders placed with factories rose 0.1% in March, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve increased the federal funds rate from 2.75% to 3.00%, as expected.

U.S. durable goods orders were down 2.3% in March, a little better than the 2.8% drop in the advanced report.

Quick Overview

• U.S. construction spending increased by a stronger-than-anticipated 0.5% in March, the Commerce Department said Monday.

• The Institute for Supply Management reported that Factory activity in the United States slowed for the fifth straight month in April, the ISM index fell to 53.3% from 55.2% in March

• Brazils government reported a trade surplus of $3.88 billion in April, up from $1.96 billion in the same month last year. Exports in April reached $9.20 billion while imports totaled $5.33 billion.

• South Korea's trade surplus rose in April compared to the previous month as global demand for locally-made products remained strong despite the won's appreciation against the dollar, the government said Sunday. April's trade surplus came to 1.96 billion US dollars, compared to 1.45 billion dollars in the previous month.
  
  
• OPEC's President said that they have increased production from 27.7 to 29.7 million barrels per day in the last month and a half, the highest daily production in 25 years.

• The USDA said that 52% of the corn crop was planted, up from 30% a week ago, and 8% of the soybeans are planted.

• An index of manufacturing in Australia increased from 52.6 to 52.9 in April, the lowest April reading in three years.
  
  
  
  
  

Quick Overview

• There is fresh speculation that China may use the impending Golden Week holidays in the region to ease the renminbi’s peg against the dollar.
  
  
• The University of Michigan's final consumer sentiment index for April dropped to 87.7, the third straight monthly decline and the lowest level since September 2003

• The National Association of Purchasing Management's index of Chicago business activity dropped from 69.2 to 65.6 in April.

• The Labor Department announced that the employment cost index, moderated in the first quarter to a 0.7% increase, down from a 0.8% gain in the last three months of 2004.

• Consumer prices rose 0.5% in March, the largest increase in 15 years. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, however, the core rate of inflation - measured by the personal consumption expenditure price index - increased 0.3%.

• Personal income rose 0.5% in March, versus the 0.4% economists had predicted. Consumer spending, rose 0.6%, versus 0.5% expected.
  

• Canada's GDP increased 0.3% in February and 3.6% YoY.
  
  
  
  

Quick Overview

• During the first quarter the U.S. economy grew at its slowest pace in two years –renewing fears of stagflation.. The economy expanded at a 3.1 % annual rate as consumers and businesses were pinched by rising energy prices. Economist had expected a growth rate of 3.6%.
  

• The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday reported U.S. March soybean crush totaled 149.7 million bushels, above the average analyst estimate of 148.7 million bushels.

• U.S. March soy oil stocks totaled 1.790 billion pounds, versus analysts
  estimates of 1.779 billion pounds. Soy meal inventories totaled 251,744 tons versus the average analyst estimate of 316,700 short tons.
  
  
• The number of U.S. workers filing for initial unemployment benefits rose by 21,000 in the week ended April 23, reversing three straight weeks of declines, the Labor Department said Thursday
  

• Industrial production in Japan was down 0.3% in March

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 73 billion cubic feet last week to 1.416 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are up 24% from a year ago.

• The Reserve Bank of India increased its overnight rate from 5.75% to 6.00%, citing rising inflation.

• The World Trade Organization ruled against European sugar subsidies today, saying that the subsidies violate their trade rules. The decision upheld a 2004 ruling that European sugar exporters are getting more in government handouts than allowed.

• The unemployment rate in Germany dropped from 12.5% to 12.0% in April. The number of unemployed fell from 5.18 to 4.97 million.
  
  
  

Quick Overview

• The Commerce Dept. showed a decline in durable goods orders of 2.8% last month - the biggest one-month drop in 2 1/2 years - following a 0.5% gain a month earlier that has been revised to a -0.2%, Excluding transportation, the decline was a less severe 1.0.

• The U.S. DoE said that the U.S. imported 10.9 million barrels of crude oil last week, the third largest amount ever. Crude oil supplies increased 5.5 million barrels to 324.4 million barrels. Unleaded supplies were down 300,000 barrels and heating oil supplies were up 400,000 barrels.

• The USDA report showed that 30% of the U.S. corn crop has been planted, more than was expected.

• Consumer prices in Australia were up 2.4% in the first quarter from a year ago, less of a gain than was expected .

• Overall trucking freight volumes fell 3.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis to 111.6 in March, according to an American Trucking Associations index released Wednesday.

• Asian soybean rust has been found in Georgia, with a positive identification confirmed Wednesday.