Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Quick Notes for the Day - October 20

PPI Falls in September - The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices dropped 0.6% in September after seasonable adjustments with energy prices falling 2.4%. The producer price index (PPI) has fallen 4.8% over the past 12 months. The core PPI (excludes food and energy) dropped 0.1% in September. Core prices have risen 1.8% over the past 12 months which is the smallest year over year rise since July 2007. The PPI had risen 1.7% in August.

September Housing Starts - The Commerce Department's initial estimate of September housing starts came in at seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 with a big drop in multifamily units that was offset by an increase in starts of single-family homes. August's final numbers reflected a downward revision to 587,000 from 598,000 thus August versus September were essentially even. In the past year, starts are down 28.2%. Building permits fell 1.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 573,000 in September. Building permits for single-family homes dropped 3% to a 450,000 rate.

Bank of Canada Leaves Rates Unchanged - The Bank of Canada on Tuesday said it kept its overnight rate target at 0.25% and repeated its conditional commitment to keep it there until the end of the second quarter of 2010. "Global economic and financial developments have been somewhat more favourable than expected at the time of the July Monetary Policy Report, although significant fragilities remain," the BOC said.

The BOC also said growth is expected to be slightly higher in the second half of this year than previously projected, but to average slightly lower over the balance of its projection period. The Canadian economy is expected to grow by 3% in 2010 and 3.3% in 2011, after contracting by 2.4 per cent this year.

Coca-Cola Reports Profit Rise - Coca-Cola said that its third quarter profit rose to $1.896 billion from $1.89 billion. Per-share amount was unchanged at 81 cents a share. The results included a 1-cent restructuring charge. Operating revenue fell 4% to $8.04 billion.

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