Thursday, September 09, 2010

Quick Overview

  • New claims for U.S. unemployment insurance dropped by 27,000 to 451,000 -- more than expected, to their lowest level in two months

  • The U.S. trade deficit shrank by 14 %, more than forecast in July as exports shot to their highest level since August 2008, painting a rosier picture for economic growth.

  • Russia may follow up its ban on grain exports with curbs on shipments of rapeseed and sunflower seed and oil.

  • MoM U.S. cocoa bean imports rose 90.9% in July, but fell 13.9% YoY.

  • Stanford researchers have developed a water-purifying filter that makes the process more than 80,000 times faster than existing filters. The key is coating the filter fabric – ordinary cotton – with nanotubes and silver nanowires, then electrifying it. The filter uses very little power, has no moving parts and could be used throughout the developing world.

  • Russia's GDP rose 4.2% in the first half of 2010 to 20.7 trillion rubles (about 670.6 billion U.S. dollars)

  • Home sales in Spain rose 24.7% in Q2 from a year earlier

  • Malaysia's Industrial Production Index in July increased 3.2 YoY

  • Brazil: According to the nationwide household survey by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the access to basic services has increased from 2004 to 2009.
  • In 2004 only 50 million households had access to electric lighting. The number grew to 57.9 million in 2009.
  • Waste collection reached 51.9 million households in 2009, up from 43.7 million in 2004.
  • Water supply by a general network climbed to 49.5 million households in 2009 from 42.4 million in 2004.
  • Workers' income increased 2.2 percent between 2008 and 2009, but failed to reach the level of 1996.
  • The survey also showed negative figures, mostly due to the financial crisis. The unemployed surged from 7.1 million in 2008 to 8.4 million in 2009, up 18.5 percent.

  • Private-sector analysts believe that China's official corn production estimate of 6.6 billion bushels is about 400 million bushels too high.

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