U.S. Initial Jobless Claims At 382.000; Down 5.000
Initial jobless claims in the U.S. were reported at 382.000 vs. 383.000 consensus and last week revised (up 2.000) reading of 387.000.
Four weeks moving unchanged.
U.S. Petroleum Weekly – March 24, 2011
I was wrong on the assumption that West will let Gaddafi win the war in Libya. U.N. approved military intervention will keep the Libyan oil out of the markets for longer then previously thought. This is positive for crude oil price.
Concerning Japan it is reasonable to assume increased derivatives demand, also positive for oil price.
In the U.S. the gasoline draw is looking quite impressive (although it is not demand driven, rather a product of refiner discipline). This could help clear Cushing stockpile glut and close the WTI – Brent pricing gap.
Video Of The Day – CNBC – Barry Ritholtz: Market Topping Out?
Any time the market is up 100 percent in two years, there tends to be a large correction, says Barry Ritholtz, FusionIQ. Ritholtz has 30 percent of his portfolio in long positions, and one of them is Dell. He explains why. Also, Pops & Drops.
U.S. New Home Sales Fell 16.9% In February
U.S. new home sales fell 16.9% to 250.000 SAAR; Consensus was at 290.000 SAAR, prior reading (revised upward 16.000) was at 301.000 SAAR.
Lowest reading on record.
Morning Reading – Wednesday, March 23, 2011
*** FT Alphaville: Has global economic growth peaked? ***
*** FT Alphaville: ‘The Central Bank of Benghazi’ ***
*** FT Alphaville: Egypt reopens for business ***
*** FT Alphaville: Yemen matters ***
*** The Oil And The Glory: Back to Saudi’s fault lines ***
*** The Big Picture: Should You Buy a Home? Looking (Again) at Housing ***
*** self-evident: ESM / EFSF: An Inverted Capital Structure ***
Video Of The Day – CNBC: China Showing Signs of Slowdown
John Tang, China strategist at UBS, explains why he foresees a significant slowdown in Chinese growth over the second quarter.
Morning Reading – Tuesday, March 22, 2011
*** The Slope Of Hope: Currency Crossroads ***
*** FT Alphaville: The wrong kind of inflation, the ironic austerity ***
*** FT Alphaville: Japan: Supply chain update ***
*** FT Alphaville: Japan’s supply-chain loss, Europe’s gain? ***
*** FT Alphaville: Why no Canadian, Australian housing busts? ***
*** Wired: Possible Early Warning Sign for Market Crashes ***
*** The Big Picture: Are huge earthquakes linked? ***
*** Bloomberg: Nuclear Plant Contaminates Sea After Damage to Fuel Rods ***
*** Climateer Investing: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: “Safe nuclear does exist, and China is leading the way with thorium” ***
U.S. Existing Homes Sales Fell 9.6% In February
Sales of existing homes in U.S. fell 9.6% to 4.88 million units SAAR. Consensus was at 5.12 million.
Morning Reading – Monday, March 21, 2011
*** FT Alphaville: Tokyo: A view from the ground, Part II ***
*** London Banker: Solution for Fukushima Cooling Pools ***
*** London Banker: “You can’t build a car with 97% of the parts” ***
*** FT BeyondBRICs: El-Erian (1): world near tipping point? ***
*** FT Alphaville: China’s missing M2 ***
*** FT Alphaville: Watching Japan’s return from Oz ***
*** The Big Picture: Risk On/Risk Off Trade Returns ***
*** Harvey Organ’s Daily: Crisis in Japan Deepens/G7 comes to financial rescue with Japan ***
*** Association for Psychological Science: Are the Wealthiest Countries the Smartest Countries? ***
February Chicago Fed National Activity Index At -0.04
Chicago Fed National Activity Index for February was reported at -0.04 vs. revised January reading of 0.01. Chicago Fed National Activity Index 3-month moving average is at 0.11.
CFNAI is pointing to mild economic growth.
Dry Bulk Weekly – March 21, 2011
Baltic dry index fell 2.0% last week; Capesize Index was down 10.8%; Panamax Index fell 1.8%; Supramax Index rose 2.9%; Handysize Index was up 3.4%.
To repeat: Judging from increase in dry bulk rates and an end of raw materials stockpiling economic activity in China is accelerating after the holidays.
Tanker Weekly – March 21, 2011
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index fell 1.1%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index rose 0.8%.
Markets adapted well to the new setup (ex. Libyan oil and with increased Japanese product demand), risk is on the downside.
Rig Count Weekly – March 21, 2011
Number of crude oil drilling rigs rose for 12; Number of natural gas drilling rigs fell for 7.
U.S. Freight Carloads Weekly – March 18, 2011
U.S. railroads originated 392,164 carloads, up 1.5% compared with the same week in 2010 and down 3.7% compared with 5-year average. Week over week change was -2.9%.
U.S. Natural Gas Weekly – March 18, 2011
Working gas in storage fell 56 Bcf from previous week. The consensus was at 42 Bcf.
Storage level is 3 Bcf higher than same time year ago.
Japanese nuclear disaster could be a game changer for natural gas as LNG cargoes bound for the U.S. could be diverted to Japan. This could clear the oversupply glut.