The U.S. Labor Department said that the consumer price index was unchanged in September and up 4.9% from a year ago, tamer than expected. Excluding food and energy, prices were up .1% in September and up 2.5% from a year ago. The September eurodollars closed up .09 at 97.605.
The Federal Reserve said that industrial production was down 2.8% in September, hurt by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Also in September, capacity utilization declined from 78.7% to 76.4%.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional index of manufacturing fell from +3.8 to -37.5 in October, the lowest in 18 years.
The Labor Department also said that jobless claims were down 16,000 last week to 461,000.
Overnight, central banks added another $254 billion of funds to keep the money markets liquid. Also, the Swiss government invested 6 billion Swiss franc in its biggest bank, UBS, and is planning to take $60 billion (U.S.) worth of troubled mortgage securities off of the bank's books.
The financial bleeding continues - Citigroup said that they lost $2.8 billion in the third quarter and Merrill Lynch lost $7.5 billion, much from debt securities that no one understands.
In spite of today's negative news, the December S&P 500 bounced back late in the day and closed up 37.70 at 941.00.
Grains and Cotton
The rains have moved out of the Midwest and favorable harvest weather is expected for at least the next five days. December corn ended down 3.5 cents at $3.845. November soybeans gained 9 cents to $8.67.
December cotton prices found some help from bargain-hunters and closed up 2.03 cents at 49.57.
Livestock
The U.K.'s Food Standards Agency said that the number of cattle found with BSE (mad cow disease) has dropped so much that they want to raise the age at which cattle are tested for BSE from 30 to 48 months. December cattle were unchanged at 90.82.
MeatPoultry.com reported that six U.S. processing plants were banned by Mexico from shipping product into the country, but the reasons why are not yet clear.
December hogs fell 1.55 to another new contract low of 55.97, hurt by widespread talk of recession.
Coffee
Brazil's coffee trees are currently in the critical flowering stage and, according to Dow Jones Newswires, the weather has been favorable for their development. December coffee ended down .0030 at $1.1295.
Energies
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said that crude oil supplies were up 5.6 million barrels last week to 308.2 million barrels, thanks to increased exports and a 300,000 barrel reduction of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Supplies of gasoline were up 7.0 million barrels and heating oil supplies were down 200,000 barrels. December crude oil dropped $4.62 to $70.26, the lowest close in over a year.
The DOE went on to say that refinery use picked up from 80.9% to 82.2% last week. Over the past four weeks, gasoline demand was down 5.2% from a year ago while distillate demand was down 6.9% from a year ago.
Underground supplies of natural gas, the DOE said, were up 79 billion cubic feet last week to 3.277 trillion cubic feet, slightly less than expected. Supplies are now down 3% from a year ago and up 3% from the five-year average. December natural gas ended up 9.3 cents at $6.972.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil called for an emergency meeting of producers on October 24th, adding that he would like to see crude oil trade between $70 and $90 per barrel.
Metals
December gold fell $34.50 to $804.50 with growing talk of recession in several major economies around the world. December copper closed down 12.50 cents at a new contract low of $2.0855.
Currencies
Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales fell 3.7% in August to C$52.0 billion, weaker than expected.
