Forex / Economy news

WASHINGTON (AP) - Oil traders will scour government petroleum data Wednesday to determine the impact of refinery snags on U.S. supplies.The Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, releases its weekly report on petroleum supplies at 10:30 a...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A fresh read on the housing slump's impact on home loan applications is due out Wednesday.The Mortgage Bankers Association will report its weekly index of home-loan application volume at 7 a.m. EDT. The number of applications rose slightly last week after falling the two previous weeks...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Talk among Japanese officials of re-investing some of its 900 bln usd in foreign currency reserves has intensified, suggesting the government is keen to join other Asian countries in seeking better returns and moving away from dollar-based assets...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - European Central Bank board member Juergen Stark said the strength of economic growth in Europe has contributed to the recent appreciation of the euro.Speaking last night at a dinner at the Frankfurt Business Journalists Club, Stark also said one should not "overinterpret" the impact of the day-to-day exchange rate of the euro on growth in the region, adding that ECB monetary policy is "still on the accommodative side"...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's National Bureau of Statistics said it has revised upward its 2006 gross domestic product growth (GDP) calculation to 11.1 pct, 0.4 percentage points higher than its previous estimate.GDP reached 21.09 trln yuan in 2006, based on prices that year, up 146...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The Bank of England deputy governor John Gieve has stressed that UK economic growth remains in good stead despite the series of interest rate hikes delivered by the central bank, the Derby Evening Telegraph reported."The retail sector has tailed off in the last few months because of the recent bad weather, but on the whole, the economy remains quite robust...

ROME (Thomson Financial) - Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi said Eurozone GDP will rise about 2 pct in the second quarter on an annual basis supported by high export growth and lively consumer demand.Eurozone first-quarter GDP was up 3 pct year-on-year and up 0...

COPENHAGEN (Thomson Financial) - Seasonally adjusted gross domestic product growth in the first quarter was 0.5 pct up from the fourth quarter, the same as originally reported, Statistics Denmark reported.It said economic development was at the same level as the preceding two quarters, with the first three months of the year dominated by moderate growth in both domestic and foreign demand...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck plans to propose adopting the EU's deficit rules for German legislation to keep public debt in check, Handelsblatt reported, citing Finance Ministry state secretary Karl Diller."Different departments here (at the Finance Ministry) are working on parallel concepts," Diller told the newspaper...

BUDAPEST (Thomson Financial) - Hungarian consumer prices (CPI) grew more than expected in June and were above last month's figure as price growth in the food, energy and services sector remained strong, data from Hungary's Central Statistical Office (KSH) showed today...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The UK's lower house of parliament will delay recommendations on how to handle the private equity sector until law-makers re-unite in October, according to a report in the Financial Times.The House of Commons' Treasury Select committee was expected to publish a scathing report on the industry before parliament's summer recess this month, but this is unlikely to happen as more hearings will be held...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in two and a half years last month with moreconsumers convinced economic conditions have worsened and expect prices to rise in a year's time,data from the Cabinet Office showed Wednesday...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - The growth in China's trade surplus is expected to ease in the second half of the year, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Wang Xinpei told reporters at a briefing.China had a first half trade surplus of 112.53 bln usd, with the June surplus at 26...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - The number of corporate bankruptcies fell 3.1 percent in June from May, following a 24.4 percent surge in the previous month, private research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd said Wednesday.The number of companies that went bankrupt last month fell to 985 compared to the 1,016 recorded in May, which was the largest number of bankruptcies recorded since Teikoku started compiling the data in its current form in April 2005...

MANILA (Thomson Financial) - Philippine Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said Wednesday he remains confident that the government's budget deficit for 2007 would not exceed the targeted ceiling of 0.9 percent of gross domestic product or 63 billion pesos, despite poor tax collections in the first half...

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - The Westpac Melbourne Institute index of Australian consumer sentiment slipped to a seasonally adjusted 120.8 points in July, down 0.6 percent from 121.5 in June, Westpac said Wednesday.The index was up 12.4 percent higher in July than a year before...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Real retail sales growth in 2007 is projected at 12.8 pct year-on-year, up 0.2 percentage points from 2006, China's State Information Center (SIC), a government think-tank, said in a report published in the official China Securities Journal...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's wholesale goods price index jumped 2.3 percent year-on-year in June, rising for the 29thconsecutive month, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday.The year-on-year gain was smaller than the market's consensus forecast for a rise of 2...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's current account surplus rose 31.1 percent from a year earlier to 2.134 trillion yen in May, ahead of market expectations, data from the Ministry of Finance showed Wednesday.Economists were looking for a surplus of 1...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The Bank of England should raise interest rates earlier rather than later to keep inflation expectations anchored, as the risk of overdoing rate hikes is low, said Andrew Sentance, one of the more hawkish members on the rate-setting panel...