Here's my summary of the key news overnight to keep you up-to-date over these holidays.
The American trade deficit shrank more than forecast in November as oil imports dropped to the lowest level in three years and exports climbed to a record.
Legislation to reinstate benefits for the long-term unemployed progressed in the US Senate, after lobbying by Obama and a concerted Democratic campaign to highlight the economic impact of the program's lapse.
The Senate also confirmed Janet Yellen as the head honcho of the Federal Reserve.
In Europe, they are flirting with deflation again. Eurozone inflation slowed to 0.8% last month, official figures show, moving further away from the European Central Bank's inflation target.
On a more optimistic note though, German unemployment fell - its first fall in five months and an unexpectedly large fall - and Eurozone bonds rallied even in Ireland and Greece. Markets may suspect the worst is over (despite AEP).
Back in New York, prosecutors there have essentially accused JPMorgan Chase of turning a blind eye to the Madoff Ponzi scheme, forcing the bank to pay US$1.7 billion to his victims. and another US$0.3 nillion as a penalty in the civil case.
In the New York markets in late trade, the price of oil is unchanged, UST 10yr benchmark bond yields declined to 2.96%, gold has fallen below US$1,230/oz, and the Dow has shot higher into record territory again.
Insurer MunichRe has detailed the extent of the costs of the 2013 global weather events, concluding that the weather was wilder than normal but less than in 2012, and improved warning systems and defenses meant the cost of the damage was lower than in recent years.
The overnight GlobalDairyTrade auction saw prices changed very little, although there were declines for milk powder and more offsetting gains for butter and cheese. This will give a better balance to Fonterra's income. In US dollars, overall prices were down -0.8%; in New Zealand dollars, they were down -1.2%.
The NZ dollar starts today holding at 82.9 USc, 92.9 AUc, and the TWI is at 78.4.
The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
No chart with that title exists.
1 Comments
Looking at the MunichRe Figures while the number of events is down a little, amount of damage in dollars is down on little last year, and the amount of insured damage is down a lot, the number of fatalities is doubled.
That looks to me like severe events happened to have hit poor areas more than last year, with much less insured damage and much more fatalities.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.