Philip Chua Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘December’

The government said Tuesday that foreign demand for U.S. Treasury securities fell by the largest amount on record in December with China reducing its holdings by $34.2 billion.







China – United States Treasury security – People’s Republic of China – Asia – United States

After having increased by a total of 3% in October and November, retail sales dropped by 0.3% mom in December, as car sales fell slightly despite industry reports of another rise. However, in January, the announced drop in domestic vehicle sales could actually translate into higher car sales in the…

U.S. businesses slashed wholesale inventories sharply in December, a much weaker showing than had been expected.







Business – Wholesale Trade – Directories – Consumer Goods and Services – Wholesale and Distribution

Leading indicators went up sharply by 0.9% mom in November – the eighth consecutive increase. We expect leading indicators to have risen markedly again in December, by about 0.7% mom. The steeper yield curve will have been the main contributor to the rise, followed by the drop in jobless claims….

Industrial production rose in line with expectations in December as electric and gas utilities stepped up output in an unusually cold month, a Federal Reserve report showed on Friday.







Federal Reserve System – Industrial production – Business – Economic – Social Sciences

President Barack Obama said Friday that the trend in the labor market was heading in the right direction even though the economy shed more jobs than expected in December.

Employment – Government – Unemployment – Business – Business & Technology

December’s employment report was somewhat of a disappointment. Many were expecting a small increase in employment to be reported for December, even though the consensus was calling for a small decline. Our own forecast called for a larger than consensus drop and we had repeatedly noted that the optimism so…

With the New Year upon us, we see the circle of life that is likely to define the U.S. economy and markets through 2010. The U.S. labor market was much weaker than expected in December. While we did get a positive print for November after revisions, this paled in comparison…

Thin markets as the northern hemisphere suffers an unusually cold snap, some not yet back from holidays and others reluctant to commit to new strategies. FX on the whole held at December’s ranges, best performers the South Koran won (+3%) and the Australian dollar ($0.9268), the Swiss franc and Norwegian…

Non-farm payrolls declined by a mere 11k in November – the best result since December 2007. The deterioration in the labour market is abating, but given the negative assessment of labour market conditions in the latest consumer confidence survey, non-farm payrolls could nevertheless have fallen again by about 10k in…