Morning Economic News - December 9, 2008

Stocks look poised to give back some of Friday and Monday's gains with US stock market futures down a bit more than half a percent in overnight trading. The Nikkei average rose 0.8% Tuesday, but the Hang Seng dropped 1.94%, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.75% and European indexes opened down about 1.5%. Oil is down 0.6% with gasoline futures just over 95 cents. The dollar is up against the Canadian dollar, pound and euro, down against the yen.

Yesterday's Economic Numbers

Employment Trends Index - November 2008

• Monthly Change: Down 1.6%


• Year-to-year Change: Down 13%

What I'm Reading

Fed Seeks Fixes Beyond Rate Cuts

With the Fed's target interest rate quickly approaching
zero, central-bank officials are embracing a broad array of remedies
for the U.S. recession.

Companies Scale Back Hiring

The outlook for the global labor market is deteriorating
markedly as companies struggle with the credit crunch and weaker
consumer demand.

Japan Government Pledges More to Prevent the Economy From `Falling Apart' Japan’s government pledged to take
further measures to support an economy that reports showed today
is in worse shape than analysts predicted.

Bernanke `War Powers' Undermine Fed Presidents, Risk Divide on Next Steps The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate
target is getting close to zero, and so is the power of the
Fed’s regional bank presidents.

German Investor Confidence May Drop to Near Record Low as Economy Stumbles German investor confidence probably
dropped to near the lowest level on record in December as the
financial crisis pushed Europe’s largest economy deeper into
recession, a survey of economists shows.

U.K. Housing Sales Drop to Lowest Since at Least 1978 as Recession Deepens U.K. home sales declined to the
lowest level since at least 1978 as Britain plunged deeper into
a recession, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said.

Spain's `Best Generation' Stung by First Slump in Memory as Jobs Disappear Roberto Frenedoso, a 23-year
construction worker, has little to do these days except loiter
around a square with his unemployed friends in Madrid’s Getafe
suburb.

French Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Widens to a Record on Slumping Exports France’s trade deficit widened to a
record in October as the global economic slowdown hurt exports.

German Exports Declined in October as Slowing Global Growth Cools Demand Exports from Germany, Europe’s largest
economy, fell in October as cooling global growth curbed demand.

China's Exports Shrink, Industrial Output Cools, Central Bank Adviser Says China’s exports may have contracted
last month as industrial output cooled, adding pressure for
policy makers meeting in Beijing this week to do more to
sustain economic growth.

U.S. First-Quarter 2009 Hiring Plans Held Near 5-Year Low, Manpower Says Hiring plans by U.S. employers for
the first quarter of next year held near a five-year low,
signaling a weak labor market will persist into 2009, according
to a private survey.

China Boomtown Withers as U.S. Importers Push Worker Rights Amid Recession Li Wencheng chain smokes in the office
of his candy factory in China’s southern manufacturing belt and
frets over diminishing returns.

Japan's Third Quarter GDP Revised Down to 1.8 Percent: Table of the Day Following is a summary of real
gross domestic product from the Cabinet Office in Tokyo.

German export outlook bleak despite Oct respite

BERLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Germany's trade surplus widened in
October, suggesting net trade may support the economy in the
final quarter, but the outlook for exports remains bleak with
orders for German goods falling sharply in recent months.

Japan deeper in recession, third-quarter GDP shows