Menu

America was closed, Europe and Asia sagged, oil retreated a little, and other commodity prices were leaderless: American holidays continue to emphasise the primacy of US markets in setting global price levels in a wide range of products.

CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, announced second-quarter 2008 volume averaged 11.1 million contracts per day, up 7 percent from second-quarter 2007.

To the US Fed, inflation is the main problem, although it isn't fully discounting the continuing dangers from the weak US economy or the dangers from the credit crunch.