Quick Overview

• Japan's machinery orders fell 3.7% in January.
  
  

• YoY China's exports rose 46% in February and imports rose 45%.
  
  

• The USDA's 2009-2010 U.S. ending stocks estimate of:
  Corn was raised from 1.719 to 1.799 billion bushels.
  Soybeans were lowered from 210 to 190 million bushels.
  Wheat was raised from .981 to 1.001 billion bushels.
  Sugar was raised from 1.055 to 1.075 million tons.
  Cotton was lowered from 3.3 to 3.2 million bales.
  
  

• The USDA's 2009-2010 world ending stocks estimate of:
  Corn was raised from 134 to 140 million tons.
  Soybeans were raised from 60 to 61 million tons.
  Wheat was raised from 196 to 197 million tons.
  Cotton was lowered from 52 to 51 million bales.
  
  OJ was raised from 129 to 131 million boxes, but yield was lowered from 1.56 to 1.53 gallons per box
  
  
  

Markopolos Sums it up

Fitch warns Britain and questions Greek rescue as sovereign risks grow
A string of European states are stepping up the pace of retrenchment, aiming to cut deficits to 3pc of GDP within three years. The risk is that Britain will soon stick out like a sore thumb, left behind with a shockingly large deficit long after such loose fiscal policy can be justified as a crisis measure. The UK deficit this year is 12.6pc of GDP, the highest among G10 states.

Quick Overview

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxembourg's Prime Minister Juncker said today that Europe and the U.S. must take quick action to regulate credit-default swaps before more financial crises occur.
• (It’s like buying fire insurance on your neighbor’s house — you create an incentive to burn it down)
  

• Lumber closed up its $10 daily limit.
  

• The U.S. DOE expects world oil demand to increase from 84.0 to 85.5 million barrels per day in 2010, up from last month's estimate of 85.3.
  

• U.K. exports fell 6.9% in January while imports fell 1.6%.
  

• Japan's coincident index rose from 97.4 to 99.9 in January, better than expected
  

• Sugar prices endure another pounding after estimates for India's production this season were revised higher.
  

• The CME is to launch a US dollar-denominated cash-settled crude palm oil futures contract on May 23
  
  
  

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said European officials are lucky that the euro region’s first major crisis was sparked by one of its smaller members and he’s confident the currency will survive.
  

• U.S. rail carload freight reaches highest level in more than a year
  

• World oil consumption has recovered back to its pre-crash peak. Numbers published for December 2009, and January 2010 show that demand for the crude once again touched 86.4 MB/d – or A Thousand Barrels a Second.
  

• (WSJ) China faces mounting pressure from trading partners to loosen currency controls and is giving signs it might raise the value of the Yuan to ease strains on its fast-growing economy.
  

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture should permit importation of an extra one million tons of raw sugar because domestic stocks are in danger of running out, said John Sheptor, chief executive of Imperial Sugar Company.
  

• China's high speed rail network (HSR ) is shaping up at an extraordinary speed. The country saw its first experimental HSR in operation in 2003, but by 2014, it will have reached 28,000 km in length - twice as large as similar networks in the rest of the world combined.
  

• A nationwide referendum is taking place in Switzerland on a proposal to give animals the constitutional right to be represented in court.
  
  

• (FT) Reykjavik vowed to seek a fresh debt repayment deal with Britain and the Netherlands, but urged the two countries to heed the ‘strong cry of defiance’ delivered by voters in the weekend referendum on the issue.
  

Quick Overview

• U.S. unemployment rate stayed at 9.7% in February while non-farm payrolls fell 36,000.

• (Bloomberg) -- Borrowing by U.S. consumers unexpectedly rose in January for the first time in a year, led by auto loans and indicating Americans are gaining confidence in the economy.

Quick Overview

• U.S. jobless claims fell 29,000 last week to 469,000
  

• U.S. pending home sales fell 7.6% MoM but rose 9% YoY
  

• U.S. factory orders rose 1.7% in January
  

• U.S. non-farm productivity increased 5.8% in Q4
  

• Japan's business investment fell 17% in Q4
  

• The Bank of England kept its interest rate unchanged.
  

• The EU kept its interest rate unchanged at 1.00%,
  

• EU GDP fell 2.3% in Q4
  

• Japan's business investment fell 17% in Q4
  

• Greece’s five-year bond was three times oversubscribed.
  

• Analysts in China expect the country's iron ore imports in March this year could reach an all-time record high of 60 million mt.
  

• Australian Iron ore exports may rise to AU$35 billion ($31 billion) in the 12 months ending June 30, 2011, from AU$29 billion ($26.2 billion) this year.
  
  

Quick Overview

• The Institute of Supply Managements' index of U.S. services increased from 50.5 to 53.0 in February --the highest since December of 2007.
  

• The Mortgage Bankers Association said U.S. Mortgage applications rose 14.6% last week.
  

• Australia's GDP rose 0.9% in Q4 of 2009 and up 2.7% YoY
  

• An index of services in the U.K. rose from 54.5 to 58.4
  

• YoY container volumes on the transpacific eastbound trade from Asia to the US fell by 15.3% in 2009 to 10.1 million TEU
  

• The International Cocoa Organization expects world production of cocoa to fall short of consumption by 18,000 tons in 2009-2010.
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 4.1 million barrels last week to 341.6 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline rose 700,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 400,000 barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 81.2% to 81.9%
  Gasoline demand rose 0.1% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 4.8% YoY.
  

Data, data everywhere
WHEN the Sloan Digital Sky Survey started work in 2000, its telescope in New Mexico collected more data in its first few weeks than had been amassed in the entire history of astronomy. Now, a decade later, its archive contains a whopping 140 terabytes of information. A successor, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, due to come on stream in Chile in 2016, will acquire that quantity of data every five days.

Such astronomical amounts of information can be found closer to Earth too. Wal-Mart, a retail giant,..

Quick Overview

• YoY global air travel rose 6.4% in January.
  

• Australia hiked its interest rate to 4%.
  

• Canada kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.25%
  

• Japan’s unemployment rate improved from 5.2% to 4.9% in January
  

• The CME said YoY interest rate futures volume rose 37%. Its equity index volume dropped 14% while energy contracts rose 5% and foreign exchange surged 82%. Metals contracts rose 57%.
  

• The Indian prime minister's economic advisory panel said white sugar stocks could "rapidly approach the nil level", and urged imports of 3m-5m tonnes.
  

• Shanghai, the world's second largest container port after Singapore, experienced a throughput increase of 18% to 2.24 million TEU in January, reported Xinhua.

Don't go wobbly on us now, Ben Bernanke
The Fed's Monetary Multiplier dropped to an all-time low of 0.809 last week.

Quick Overview

• (WSJ) The EU's monetary affairs commissioner said the EU is ready to support Greece, but urged the country to take further measures to shrink its budget deficit.
  

• U.S. personal incomes rose 0.1% in January
  

• U.S. consumer spending rose 0.5%.
  

• The Institute of Supply Management said its index of U.S. manufacturing fell from 58.4 to 56.5
  

• MoM U.S. construction spending fell 0.6%.
  

• Canada’s GDP rose 0.6% in December

Next Update Sunday (I'm on strike)

Quick Overview

• (WSJ) Greece set off the crisis rattling the euro zone. Spain could determine whether the 16-nation currency stands or falls.
  

• U.S. durable goods orders rose 3.0% in January.
  

• U.S. jobless claims rose 22,000.
  

• Germany's unemployment rate rose from 8.6% to 8.7% in February.
  

Quick Overview

• Fed's Bernanke confirms rates to be kept low

• U.S. new home sales fell 11.2% MoM -- dropping to the lowest level on record.
  

• The Mortgage Bankers Association said its index of mortgage applications fell 8.5% last week.
  

• Japan's exports rose 41% YoY.
  

• EU industrial new orders rose 0.6% MoM and 6.3% YoY.
  

• Germany's GDP fell 2.4% in Q4.
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 3.0 million barrels to 337.5 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline fell 900,000 barrels.
  Supplies of heating oil rose 600,000 barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 79.8% to 81.2%.
  Gasoline demand fell 0.3%
  Distillate demand fell 6.8%.
  

• China's copper imports rose 9% YoY.

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week announced it would host a public meeting in late March to discuss speculation limits in US metal futures.
  

Quick Overview

• The Standard and Poor's/CaseShiller index of U.S. home prices fell 0.2% in December and 3.1% YoY
  
  

• The Conference Board's index of U.S consumer confidence fell from 56.5 to 46.0 -- weaker than expected.
  
  

• Germany business confidence fell from 95.8 to 95.2 in February.
  

• France’s inflation rate rose 1.2% YoY

• China may not buy the International Monetary Fund's remaining 191.3 metric tons of gold up for sale, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported Wednesday.

Quick Overview

• The London Metal Exchange has approached the Baltic Exchange to develop an electronic exchange for freight derivatives.
  

• (FT) Saudi Arabia’s oil exports to the US last year sank below 1m barrels a day for the first time in two decades just as China’s purchases climbed above that level, highlighting a shift in the geopolitics of oil from west to east
  

• The London Metal Exchange is launching derivatives contracts on cobalt and molybdenum.
  

• World cocoa demand could return to historical growth trends of between 2% and 3% in 2010, Cargill's managing director of cocoa and chocolate said Monday.

Europe's monetary union has become an instrument of deflation torture EMU is slowly suffocating boom-bust states trapped in debt deflation, acting in the same perverse and destructive fashion as the Gold Standard in the 1930s.

Quick Overview

• U.S. consumer prices rose 0.2% in January and 2.6% YoY
  

• Canada’s retail sales rose 0.4% in December
  

• Canada’s leading indicators rose 0.9%
  

• U.K.'s retail sales fell 1.8% in January, but rose 0.9% YoY.

Quick Overview

• (Bloomberg) The Federal Reserve Board raised the discount rate charged to banks for direct loans by a quarter point to 0.75 percent and said the move will encourage financial institutions to rely more on money markets rather than the central bank for short-term liquidity needs.

• US states face a funding gap of at least $1,000bn for public sector employees’ retirement benefits, threatening already strained budgets, according to a new study.
  
  

• U.S. jobless claims rose 31,000 to 473,000 -- more than expected.
  
  

• U.S. Producer price index rose 1.4% MoM and 4.6% YoY.
  
  

• The Conference Board's index of leading indicators rose 0.3%.
  
  

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional index of manufacturing rose from 15.2 to 17.6 in January
  

• Japan's composite index rose 1.4 to 97.4
  

• The International Monetary Fund said that it will start selling 191.3 tons of gold -- spread out over time.
  
  

• The U.S. DOE said:
  Supplies of crude oil rose 3.1 million barrels to 334.5 million barrels.
  Supplies of gasoline rose 1.7 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil fell 1.4 million barrels.
  Refinery use rose from 79.1% to 79.8%.
  Gasoline demand fell 1.3% YoY
  Distillate demand fell 7.4% YoY
  
  

• Canada's consumer price rose 1.9%

• World 2009-10 sugar production is expected to fall 9.4 million metric tons short of demand, the International Sugar Organization said Thursday. The second consecutive world deficit follows a shortfall of 11.7 million tons of sugar in 2008-09