The Week at a Glance

Allied Shipbrokering Inc says "unemployment" is becoming the No 1 issue with published statistics creating fear and uncertainty.

It was further elaborated that, in USA in November 533.000 jobs have been lost, increasing the number of jobs lost since January 2008 to 1,91 million, thus creating a 34 year high! Pretty scary?

In the Euro zone, OECD foresees worsening of therecession. Growth for the year 2009 is anticipated to benegative at around minus 1% whereas inflation isexpected to be at the region between 1,1% and 1,7%.

Commodity speaking, BHP Billiton will follow its rivals Vale and Rio Tinto in cutting down production of iron ore after seeing Far Eastern steel mills not increasing their stocks. In oil, Saudi Arabia will reduce its crude production in January as demand keeps on dropping.

Source: S&P Weekly Glance, Allied Shipbrokering Inc (Week 50, 2008)