" Midday News Recap: Cdn Wholesale Trade Tops Releases on Quiet NA ...

Tag : Composite Fertilizer

(CEP News) - It was a quiet morning for releases in North America,with wholesale trade and leading indicators released in Canada andstate and regional employment data the lone release in the U.S.
Canada's wholesale sales posted a larger-than-expected 1.6% rise inMay, driven predominantly by rising fertilizer sales, StatisticsCanada reported Friday. Wholesale sales hit $44.2 billion in themonth, up from $43.5 billion in April. This marks the fourth gainin the last five months. Analysts had expected to see a 0.5%increase in the monthly figure. Fertilizer exports soared 57.7%compared with the same month last year.
"Since the volume of wholesale trade was only robust in May (inreal terms) this report will likely have a sizable impact on MayGDP," noted Charmaine Buskas, senior economics strategist from TDSecurities. "The next piece of the puzzle is the retail salesnumbers which come out next week, but there is already goodmomentum for May GDP."
Canada's composite leading index was unchanged in June as consumerspending remained strong but housing and manufacturing showed signsof weakness, Statistics Canada reported Friday. The flat reading inthe index followed gains of 0.2% in May and 0.1% in April. Analystshad expected to see the composite index rise by another 0.1% inJune. New orders from manufacturers plunged 3.5% to $25.4 billionin June from $26.3 billion the month prior.
Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changedin June, as 24 states recorded month-to-month unemployment rateincreases, 16 states and the District of Columbia registereddecreases and 10 states had no change, according to the Bureau ofLabor Statistics on Friday.
On a year-to-year basis, the unemployment rate was up in 45 states(and D.C.), down in four states and unchanged in one state. Thenational unemployment rate was unchanged in June at 5.5%, but wasup from 4.6% a year earlier.
In overnight news, Germany's Federal Statistics Office (Destatis),reported that German producer price inflation accelerated to 6.7%year-over-year in June, up from both the 6.5% growth rate expectedand the 6.0% rate recorded in May. June's annualized increase isthe largest recorded since March 1982. In monthly terms, theproducer price index rose 0.9%. Economists had expected a moresevere slowdown to 0.7% after prices increased 1.0% in the previousmonth.
Eurostat reported that the euro zone trade balance fell to adeficit of €4.6 billion in May. Economists had expected asmaller deficit reading of €1.0 billion following the previousmonth's €2.5 billion surplus. April's figure was revised upfrom a surplus of €2.3 billion. Adjusting for calendareffects, the trade deficit was only €1.5 billion, down from asurplus of €1.4 billion recorded in April. Economists hadexpected a surplus reading of €800 million. Meanwhile, April'sfigure was revised down from a surplus level of €2.2 billion.
The Bank of Japan released the minutes of its June 12 and 13monetary policy meeting, where it was unanimously agreed that thecurrent money market operation guidelines would be maintained andthat the uncollateralized overnight call rate would remainunchanged at 0.50%.
In a joint interview with the Irish Times, France's Le Figaro,Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Portugal's Jornal deNegocios published on Friday, European Central Bank PresidentJean-Claude Trichet reiterated that the mandate of the ECB was toensure price stability in the medium term and suggested that wouldbe achieved "in line with our definition" over 18 months.
"We are not pursuing two goals; we are pursuing one goal, which isprice stability in the medium term," Trichet said.
Speaking to the Irish Times, Trichet said that policy-makers wouldnot modify monetary policy to help individual euro zone states thatare seeing notable economic slowdowns, such as Ireland, Spain orPortugal, and emphasized that the interest of the entire monetaryzone was the focus of the ECB. "Our monetary policy must be optimalat the level of the whole euro area," Trichet said.
Speaking at the London Stock Exchange on Friday, Bank of EnglandDeputy Governor John Gieve expects inflation to rise to "well over"4% in 2008 while economic growth should slow sharply. "We areexpecting inflation to be well over 4 percent for much of the restof the year," Gieve said in a prepared statement, adding that"timely sources of data suggest the economy is already slowingfast."
By Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca, with contributions fromTodd Wailoo, twailoo@economicnews.ca, Geoff Matthews,gmatthews@economicnews.ca, Patrick McGee, pmcgee@economicnews.ca
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