Thursday, December 29, 2005

Quick Overview

  • U.S. Jobless claims increased 3,000 last week to 322,000.

  • Home resales fell to a 6.97 million seasonally adjusted annual rate last month, a 1.7% decline from October's unrevised 7.09 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales dropped by 2.7% in October. The National Association of Realtors said there are 2.90 million homes for sale in the U.S. -- a five-month supply.


  • The National Association of Purchasing Management's Chicago index dropped from 61.7 to 61.5 in December, stronger than expected.

  • Argentina's central bank forecast on Thursday that Latin America's third-largest economy will expand by 6.2 percent next year, slowing from this year's estimated 8.7 percent growth.

  • An index of consumer confidence in the U.K. dropped from -8 to -9 in December.

  • The unemployment rate in France improved from 9.7% to 9.6% in November.

  • Venezuela's Central Bank on Thursday said it had approved currency transactions in Euros in a move that expands the country's strict foreign exchange controls away from U.S. dollars.

  • The DOE said that:
    Supplies of crude oil were up 100,000 barrels to 322.6 million barrels.
    Supplies of unleaded gasoline were down 1.2 million barrels.
    Supplies of heating oil supplies were down 1.2 million barrels.
    Supplies of underground natural gas were down 162 billion cubic feet to 2.640 trillion cubic feet. YoY supplies are down 8%.

  • London inventories of copper increased 7,150 tons to 87,750.

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