Quick Overview

• U.S. consumer prices rose 0.7% in June and fell 1.4% YoY.
  

• U.S. industrial production fell 0.4% in June.
  

• US June Capacity Utilization fell to 68.0% vs. 67.9% expected and 68.2% in May
  

• The N.Y. Feds regional index of manufacturing rose from -9.4 to -.6 in July
  

• Japan left target rate unchanged at 0.10% as expected
  

• Switzerland May Retail Sales fell -1.4% YoY
  

• Euro Zone June CPI rose 0.2% MoM. Core CPI rose 1.4% YoY
  

• Bloomberg's Global Confidence Indicator fell to 39.13 in July from 43.57 in June
  

• Canada May Manufacturing Shipments fell -6.0% vs. -2.5% expected
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 2.8 million barrels to 344.5 million barrels
  Supplies of gasoline rose 1.5 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 500,000 barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 86.8% to 87.9% of capacity
  Gasoline demand rose 0.6% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 11.7% YoY.
  

• China bought another 4.2 million bushels of old-crop soybeans this AM

• Brazil is expected to produce a record 52 million 60-kg bags of coffee in the 2010/11 crop year, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

• YoY Russian 2009/10 sugar output is set to fall below 2.9 million tonnes from 3.5.

Microsoft Research and Bill Gates Bring Historic Physics Lectures to Web
Richard Feynman lectures delivered at Cornell University in 1964

The Great American Bubble Machine
What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain —

Quick Overview

• U.S. retail sales rose 0.6% in June. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.3%
  

• U.S. producer prices rose 1.8% in June, but fell 4.6% YoY
  

• Industrial production in the EU rose 0.1% in May, but fell 15.9% YoY
  

• U.K.'s consumer prices rose 1.8%
  

• UK June Retail Sales rose 3.2% YoY
  

• UK May DCLG House Prices fell -12.5% YoY
  

• Business confidence in Australia rose from -2 to +4 in June

• China's foreign-exchange reserves rose a record $178 billion in Q2 to $2.132 Trillion
  

• Intel said sales will reach $8.9 billion in the current quarter, surpassing the $7.86 billion estimated by analysts.

Cash-strapped Boston zoo may be forced to close doors, euthanize animals

Spain seeks sunken treasure
Gold bullion and silver treasure worth an estimated £85billion - the size of the nation's current budget shortfall - lies on the sea bed off the coast of southern Spain.

Quick Overview

• New Zealand May Retail Sales rose 0.8% MoM
  

• Japan June Consumer Confidence rose to 38.1 from 36.3 in May
  

• Switzerland June Producer and Import Prices were unchanged at 0.0% MoM

• Singapore's economy grew for the first time in a year, rising 20% in Q2

Europe digs its economic grave while the ECB answers to no one
Nobody knows where the tipping point lies on public debt, though anything above 100pc of GDP in a currency union is courting fate. Some are already there. The European Commission says Italian debt will jump to 116pc in 2010. Greece is vaulting back to 109pc, Belgium to 101pc, France to 86pc.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $25.96 billion in May, its lowest level since November 1999
  

• The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment fell from 70.8 to 64.6 in July
  

• Canada’s unemployment rate rose from 8.4% to 8.6% in June

• Germany June Wholesale Price Index rose 0.9% MoM but was still down 8.8% YoY
  

• Norway June CPI rose 0.6% MoM
  Norway June Producer Prices rose 8.7% MoM and 0.8 YoY
  

• UK June PPI rose 1.5
  

• US June Import Price Index rose 3.2% MoM
  

• The USDA's 2009-2010 U.S. ending stocks estimate for:
  Corn was raised from 1.09 to 1.55 billion bushels.
  Soybeans were raised from 210 to 250 million bushels.
  Wheat was raised from 647 to 706 million bushels.
  Sugar was lowered from 459,000 to 359,000 tons.
  Cotton unchanged at 5.60 million bales.
  

• The USDA's 2009-2010 world ending stocks estimate for:
  Corn was raised from 125 to 139 million tons.
  Soybeans were raised from 51 to 52 million tons.
  Wheat was lowered from 183 to 181 million tons.
  Cotton was raised from 57 to 58 million tons.
  

• The USDA raised the 2008-2009 Florida orange crop from 160 to 162 million boxes.
  
  

Shipping Rates Will Decline After Record Rally, Survey Shows
The cost of transporting coal, iron ore and grain by sea will decline this quarter, ending a record rally, a survey showed. The Baltic Dry Index will average 2,950 points in the third quarter, according to the median estimate of seven analysts, traders and fund managers surveyed July 3 to 7. That’s 5 percent less than yesterday’s 3,107 points.

Quick Overview

• U.S. jobless claims fell 52,000 last week to 565,000.
  

• China’s car sales rose 48%.
  

• (Bloomberg) China’s new lending more than doubled in June from a month earlier, increasing concerns bad loans and asset bubbles will emerge amid a credit boom.
  

• Japan’s June Machine Tool Orders fell 73.1% YoY

• YoY Japan's wholesale prices fell 6.6% in June , the biggest fall on record

• Australia's unemployment rate rose to a six-year high of 5.8 % in June.
  

• The Bank of England kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.50%
  

• U.K. exports fell 1% in May while imports fell 4%.
  

• Canada's housing starts rose 8% in June.
  

• YoY European Cocoa grindings fell 11.3%
  

India May Face Drought if Monsoon is Weak
"The window of opportunity for planting most kharif crops (rice, coarse grains, soybeans, peanut, cotton and pulses) will be over by mid-July. If rains come in the next week, planting operations will pick up," the report said.

Quick Overview

• The IMF expects the world economy to contract 1.4% in 09, but increase 2.5% in 2010.
  

• The IMF expects U.S. GDP to fall 2.6% in 09 and go up 0.8% in 2010.
  

• The IMF expects China’s GDP to rise 7.5% in 2009 and up 8.5% in 2010.
  

• Japan’s June Machine Orders fell -3.0% MoM
  

• Australia’s Consumer Confidence rose 9.3%.
  

• Australia’s May Home Loans rose 2.2%.
  

• Switzerland’s June Unemployment Rate rose to 3.8%
  

• Sweden May Industrial Production fell -2.7% MoM
  

• Germany’s May Industrial Production rose 3.7% MoM

• Chinese official are touting an expansion of gold holdings by China and suggesting that the increased holdings were needed as a hedge against a long term downtrend in the Dollar
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 2.9 million barrels to 347.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline rose 1.9 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 2.0 million barrels.
  Refinery use fell from 87.0% to 86.8%.
  Gasoline demand rose 1.3% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 12.3% YoY.
  
  

• Shares of ICE and CME extended losses following news the CFTC is planning to propose trading limits on oil and natural gas.
  

Quick Overview

• A record 3.23% of U.S. consumer loans were late by 30 days or more, the most since records began in 1974.

• (Bloomberg) -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will announce today plans to introduce curbs on speculation of commodities including energy
  

• U.K. manufacturing output fell 0.5% in May
  

• Australia kept interest rates unchanged at 3.0%
  

• Norway May Industrial Production fell -7.8% YoY
  

• UK May Industrial Production fell -0.6% MoM
  

• Germany May Factory Orders rose 4.4% MoM but fell 29.4% YoY
  

• Canada May Building Permits rose 14.8% MoM

• In the U.S. the calls for more stimulus spending are becoming louder.
  

• Is California printing (quantitative easing) its own currency (IOU’s)? More states to follow?

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH HENRY KISSINGER
'Obama Is Like a Chess Player'
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 86, discusses the painful lessons of the Treaty of Versailles, idealism in politics and Obama's opportunity to forge a peaceful American foreign policy.

Stephen Hawking: "Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution"
The rate of biological evolution in humans is about a bit a year,compared to 50,000 new books published in the English language each year, containing on the order of a hundred billion bits of information, Stephen Hawking says. This means we are now entering a new phase of evolution -- "self designed evolution" --

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Institute of Supply Management’s index of services rose from 44.0 to 47.0 in June
  

• Retail sales in the EU-27 fell 0.5% in May.
  

• Euro Zone July Sentix Investor Confidence fell to -31.3 from -27.0 in June
  

• Services in the U.K. fell from 51.7 to 51.6 in May
  

• New Zealand June House Prices fell 7.1% YoY
  

• German cocoa grindings fell 15% YoY.

• (FT) India, the world's largest consumer of gold, faces a drop in precious metal imports after the government revealed plans to double import taxes on gold and silver

• Moody's Investors Service has downgraded American ports from "stable" to "negative" as the downturn reduces consumer demand and cargo volumes.
  
  

The unemployment timebomb is quietly ticking
The Centre for Labour Market Studies (CLMS) in Boston says US unemployment is now 18.2pc, counting the old-fashioned way

Quick Overview

• The U.S. unemployment rate rose from 9.4% to 9.5% in June
  

• U.S. jobless claims were down 16,000 last week to 614,000.
  

• U.S. factory orders rose 1.2%.
  

• The unemployment rate in the EU rose from 8.7% to 8.9% in May
  

• The European Central Bank met and kept its interest rate unchanged at 1.0%.
  

• “More evidence of a developing El Niño event has emerged during the past fortnight, and computer forecasts show there’s very little chance of the development stalling or reversing,” Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a report.
  

• India is expected to produce 15 million tonnes of sugar in the year to September, down 43% YoY. Demand for the world's top consumer and biggest producer after Brazil, was expected to be 22.5 million tonnes in 2008/09.
  

• Indonesia's coffee output is forecast to grow by 3% to 689,000 tonnes in 2009.

Quick Overview

• U.S. index of pending home sales rose 0.1% in May
  

• U.S. ISM index of manufacturing rose from 42.8 to 44.8
  

• U.S. construction spending fell 0.9% MoM and 11.6% YoY.
  

• U.K.'s index of services fell 0.1% in April.
  

• U.K.’s index of manufacturing rose from 45.4 to 47.0
  

• Japan's Tankan business confidence rose from -58 to -48
  

• Australia’s May Retail Sales rose 1.0% MoM
  

• China’s June Manufacturing PMI out at 53.2 versus 53.1 prior
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said:
  Supplies of crude oil fell 3.7 million barrels to 350.2 million barrels
  Supplies of gasoline rose 2.3 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil rose 2.8 million barrel
  Refinery use fell from 87.1% to 87.0%.
  Gasoline demand rose 0.9% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 9.4% YoY.

• China wants to debate a new reserve currency at next week's G8 meeting