Brent Crude spot price

                                 

Brent  and Ural oil prices 
                              

                                                                                  WTI Future price (weekly chart from finviz.com) 

Heavy Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil Differential             Bloomberg Syncrude Sweet Blend Crude Oil fob Edmonton Spot Price
          (link from Bloomberg L.P.)                                                               (link from Bloomberg L.P.)    

 OPEC Crude Oil Basket Daily Price                                      Gulf Oman Crude Oil Spot Price    
          (chart from Bloomberg L.P.)                                             (link from Bloomberg L.P.)               

                                

US oil domestic production, oil imports and Cushing Oil Stocks Data

EIAThis Week In Petroleum

Weekly Cushing, OK Ending Stocks Crude Oil , or look them at  Bloomberg L.P.  or EIA

                                

The "pulse" of shale gas and shale oil: North Dakota and Texas

Texas Monthly Oil and Gas Production (from Texas RRC)

Production Adjustment Factor - An Estimate of Monthly Oil and Gas Production (from Texas RRC) :

"Each month the Commission reports preliminary Texas production of crude oil and gas well gas based on producer filings of Form PR. Preliminary production totals are key indicators for many industry analysts, who use the data to forecast U. S. oil and natural gas supply and demand and to measure industry activity and performance. The Commission recognizes, however, that this preliminary snapshot of Texas monthly production underestimates the final and complete total. In subsequent months of producer filings, the Commission receives many corrected or delinquent production reports. The Commission may need to resolve problems in data collection, format, or processing that again result in subsequent upward revisions to monthly production totals.  Company mergers and acquisitions may also delay timely producer filings. This ongoing process of reconciling operator data typically pushes the actual production totals higher. In an effort to estimate actual monthly production more accurately, the Commission will calculate a supplemental production adjustment factor each month to be applied to the preliminary, reported statewide total of oil and gas well gas. The production adjustment factor, multiplied by the preliminary production total, is the Commission's estimate of the expected, final statewide production for a given month. The factor will not be applied to either the reported condensate or casinghead gas production. Because the Commission reports production in various ways (for example, by county and RRC district), it would be impractical to apply any adjustment factor to individual districts, leases, or wells. The factor therefore applies only to statewide totals."

Eagle Ford Shale Information (from Texas RRC)

 

North Dakota Historical monthly oil production statistics

 

North Dakota Historical monthly gas production and sales statistics

Commodities prices and CRB Index

Gold Spot Price (chart form Kitco.com)

         Henry Hub NATURAL GAS Spot Price  (delayed)                                              China import Iron Ore Fines 62% Fe spot (delayed)     
              USD per million BTUs (link  from Ycharts)                                                       USD/metric tonne  (link from Ycharts)                                  
or look at the latest prices at bloomberg (gas)   oe EIA for the data                                  or look at the latest prices at bloomberg (iron)        

  

Globalcoal Newcastle Index : (from www.theice.com) "The globalCOAL Newcastle Index values are calculated and supplied daily by globalCOAL. The Indices are a representation of week to date or month to date prices, calculated from the globalCOAL Newcastle Index traded on globalCoal, and are not calculated from futures activity traded on ICE".

                   

See  also these websites for more (free) additional information:

- The commodity webpage at Indexmundi

- The futures webpage at Finviz.com

- Natural Gas -European price (chart from Mongabay.com using World Bank Commodity price data)                

- Natural Gas -LNG Japan (chart from Mongabay.com using World Bank Commodity price data)  

-  Coal, Australian thermal coal Monthly Price - US Dollars per Metric Ton (from indexmundo.org)

  

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB  Index:

 

For nearly 50 years, this world-renowned index has served as the most widely recognized measure of global commodities markets. As a benchmark, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index is designed to provide timely and accurate representation of a long-only, broadly diversified investment in commodities through a transparent and disciplined calculation methodology.  The history of the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index dates back to 1957, when the Commodity Research Bureau constructed an index comprised of 28 commodities that made its inaugural appearance in the 1958 CRB Commodity Year Book. br> It currently is made up of 19 commodities as quoted on the NYMEX, CBOT, LME, CME and COMEX exchanges. These are sorted into 4 groups, each with different weightings. These groups are:

- Petroleum based products (based on their importance to global trade, always make up 33% of the weightings),
- Liquid assets,
- Highly liquid assets
- Diverse commodities

The Index was renamed the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index in 2005 when it underwent its tenth and most recent revision - as the collaborative effort of Reuters, the global information company, and Jefferies Financial Products, LLC - to maintain its continued accurate representation of modern commodity markets.

See the full details at Jefferies and Reuters

 

Oil Production / Oil Consumption / Net Oil Export /  Net Oil Import

The Energy Export Databrowser, is a interesting web service which graphs BP Statistical Data as well as other energy related datasets. Find below some examples with the twelve OPEC members:

Glimpse of the future 1: Indonesia (left OPEC in 2008):

Glimpse of the future 2: Egypt (for a detailed discussion and analysis about Egypt see here))

Glimpse of the future 3: UK (a net oil importer from 2006, notwithstanding the North Sea)

Glimpse of the future 4: Argentina (close to become a net oil importer)

 

OPEC  Spare Cacacity

                      OPEC Spare Capacity                                                          OPEC Spare Capacity                                     Saudi Arabia Percent of OPEC spare capacity
                 (chart fromWTRG Economics)                                             (chart from WTRG Economics)                                        (chart from WTRG Economics)    

     

More data and plots here./a>

Population Data

The Population Trends Databrowser, is a interesting web service which graphs US Census Bureau's International Data Base.. Find below some examples:

 

 

 

 

Mineral Resources Data

The US Minerals Databrowser,, is a interesting web service which graphs the U.S. Geological Survey data.. Find below some examples:

 

NYMEX Energy Futures Chain

Futures contracts allow traders to buy and sell commodities for delivery at some future date at a pre-determined price. A futures chain is created when prices for futures of subsequent months are chained together. In the current environment of volatile energy prices, energy futures chains provide a snapshot of the "emotional state" of the market -- the level of optimism or pessimism about near term and long term prospects for both the economy and the availability of energy resources such as oil and natural gas. This databrowser uses daily prices for NYMEX energy futures from June 01, 2009 to yesterday's close. Users may select dates to compare market predictions from the past with the actual closing prices they were trying to predict. The data are presented in a manner that shows the weekly, monthly and quarterly variation in futures prices, providing an intuitive picture of volatility in energy markets. (Description taken from the official webpage mazamascience.com/databrowsers.html). Find below an example:

 

Russian Oil Production: Overview and Data

For an introduction to the Russian Oil Industry, see the Country Analysis Briefs for Russia at EIA , as well as the analysis at IEA, where you can find the latest free Oil Market Report (in Russian).

Daily Production data are published for free at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Central Dispatching Department of Fuel and Energy Complex (SE "CDU TEK"), while more refined data as well as historical data are available for a fee.

Interesting related websites are reported  below:

Russian Federation: Center for Energy Efficient Technology (CERT)
Russian Federation: Coal Industry Advisory Board (CIAB)
Russian Federation: Federal Agency for Science and Innovation
RRussian Federation: Federal State Statistics Service
Russian Federation: Gazprom
Russian Federation: Ministry of Energy
Russian Federation: Russian Energy Agency
Russian Federation: Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK)

One of the most detailed and interesting analysis about the future prospects of the Russian Oil sector is the diploma thesis by Aram Mäkivierikko  (from the the Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group of the Swedish Uppsala University) titled "Russian Oil - A Depletion Rate Model estimate of the future Russian oil production and export". published at the beginning of 2007. Find below the abstract:

Abstract: Oil is a heavily used natural resource with a limited supply. Russia is one of the largest oil producers and the second largest oil exporting country in the world. Many surrounding countries are dependent on Russian energy. Swedish oil import from Russia has grown from 5% to 35% during 2001-2005. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused the Russian oil production to drop by 50%. The production is currently growing again but how will it develop in the future? This report studies different scenarios for Russian oil production and export based on three different estimates of how much oil Russia has left today (70, 120 or 170 Gb), combined with estimates about how fast Russia can produce the oil (a depletion rate of 3%, 4.5% or 6%). In the worst case, Russian oil production and also the oil export will peak very soon or has already done so in 2006. In the best case, a constant export can be held until 2036. It is not likely that the Russian production will increase more than 5-10% over today s level.

 

US Crude Oil stocks - US natural gas stocks - US coal stocks

 Crude oil stock levels is one of the many factors affecting the price of crude oil, and recently one of the most looked at, in order to understand the level of oil supply and scarcity.
See the EIA-DOE Short-Term Energy Outlook for a  broader discussion. I report below both the onshore stock and the offshore (floating) storage levels. See also this nice introduction to the World Oil Market posted at Tutor2u.net .

Anyway, the best introduction to the oil industry and markets is surely the book OIL 101  by Morgan Downey (see one the most complete review of this book at "The Oil Drum",  as well as Wikipedia)). Published at the beginning of 2009, this book has quickly become a benchmark worlwide for its clarity about the oil industry: sufficient to say that in 1 year on Amazon, it has received so far 40 five-star review and 1 four-star review! Definitely, one of the best book ever published in this field.

For daily information and discussions about oil and energy issues in general and their impact on society, the Oil Drum is a must. The Oil Drum was rated one of the top five sustainability blogs of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings and it is one of the most read web site/blog about oil and energy issues,  according to Alexa.com and Technorati.com . See also Wikipedia for more details.

U.S. Crude Oil Stocks (millions of barrels -chart from US EIA-DOE)                            

     

 

               

See  also the  US Gulf Coast Oil floating storage (thousands of barrels -link from Bloomberg L.P.)

U.S. Natural Gas Stocks (Billion Cubic Feet -chart from US EIA-DOE)                                                US electric power sector coal stocks (millions short ton -chart from EIA.)

    

For an analysis of the current and future situation of the oil market see the most recent a href="http://bioage.typepad.com/files/1223fm-05.pdf"> Global Markets Research report by Deutsche Bank, issued on the 22/12/2010, as well as the

report produced by the Technology and Policy Assessment function of the UK Energy Research Centre issued at the end of 2009 .

 

Gasoline Prices

I report below a series of charts relative to gasoline prices. See this post by prof. James Hamilton about oil and gasoline prices for a brief and clear description about their possible effects on (US) economy. For more details, see the recent article about "Nonlinearities and the Macroeconomic Effects of Oil Prices" by prof. James Hamilton as well as his famous paper Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007-08, which is one of the most complete and clear description of the oil shock in 2008 and its effects on the economy. Less technical articles summarizing this paper can be found here for the causes of the oil shock, and here for the consequences.

                                      (Data and charts from EIA-DOE)

                         

For data and more details see here. 

See also the US Daily National Average Gasoline Prices Regular Unleaded from Bloomberg

or look at Gasbuddy.com::

 

US  Monthly Crude Oil and Natural Gas Exploratory and Development Wells

                                                         (Data and charts from EIA-DOE) 

For data and more details see here.

US  Annual Real Cost  of Crude Oil  and Natural Gas Wells Drilled

                                                         (D(Data and charts from EIA-DOE) 

For data and more details see here.

Monthly US Percent Utilization of Refinery Operable Capacity

                                                        (Data and charts from EIA-DOE) 

For data and more details see here.

Monthly US Rotary Rigs in Operation

                                                         (D(Data and charts from EIA-DOE)

For data and more details see here. While for more updated date see Baker Hughes rotary rig count for US oil and gas

 

 

US Crude  Oil Input Quality

                                                         (Data and charts from EIA-DOE)

For data and more details see here.

Monthly US Total Gasoline Retail Deliveries by Refiners

                                                         (Data and charts from EIA-DOE)

For data and more details see here.

Finally, for more information about the  previous charts from EIA-DOE and the underlying material, see again the outstanding book "Oil 101" by Morgan Downey

 

IHS / CERA Capital Costs Indexes

(From www.ihsindexes.com ):

The IHS/CERA Upstream Capital Costs Index (UCCI) tracks the costs of equipment, facilities, materials, and personnel (both skilled and unskilled) used in the construction of a geographically diversified portfolio of twenty eight onshore, offshore, pipeline and LNG projects. It is similar to the consumer price index (CPI) in that it provides a clear, transparent benchmark tool for tracking and forecasting a complex and dynamic environment.

The IHS CERA Upstream Operating Costs Index (UOCI) measures cost changes in the oil and gas field operations arena. It is similar to the consumer price index (CPI) in that it provides a clear, transparent benchmark tool for tracking and forecasting a complex and dynamic environment.

The IHS CERA Downstream Capital Costs Index (DCCI)  tracks the costs of equipment, facilities, materials, and personnel (both skilled and unskilled) used in the construction of a geographically diversified portfolio of more than thirty refining and petrochemical construction projects. It is similar to the consumer price index (CPI) in that it provides a clear, transparent benchmark tool for tracking and forecasting a complex and dynamic environment.

The IHS CERA Power Capital Costs Index (PCCI) Leveraging IHS CERA's Index + Scenarios methodology, the PCCI tracks and forecasts the costs associated with the construction of a portfolio of 30 different power generation plants in North America. The PCCI tracks the costs of building coal, gas, wind and nuclear power plants, indexed to year 2000.

The IHS CERA European Power Capital Costs Index (EPCCI))) Leveraging IHS CERA's Index + Scenarios methodology, the EPCCI tracks and forecasts the costs associated with the construction of a portfolio of power generation plants in Europe. The EPCCI tracks the costs of building coal, gas, wind and nuclear power plants, indexed to year 2000.

                                                                UCCI                                                                                                                               UOCI

 

Intratec Chemical Plant Construction Cost Index (IC Index)

(From http://base.intratec.us/home/ic-index ):

Intratec Chemical Plant Construction Cost Index (IC Index) is a handily tool which enables scaling of capital costs needed to erect a chemical plant at a certain time in the past to a later time (at the present or even at the future).  
InIntratec Plant Construction Cost Index (IC Index) comprises a series of specific and general price indexes, evaluated by Intratec consultant's as fundamental for the construction of chemical plants, which are combined to reasonably reflect generic chemical plants capital costs. Most of the price indexes are obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website and measures the behavior of selling prices received by U.S. producers during time.

Although cost indexes do not usually forecast future escalation, the IC Index stands out for presenting a smaller delay between release date and index date, besides a 12 months forecast.span> On the other hand, the index is only available from January 2000 (with a value of 100). It is available at Intratec s website and is updated monthly.
See Wikipedia  for a comparison and a discussion of alternative chemical plant cost indexes.

Other Tanker Indices and Ship Tracking Services

The Riverlake European Tanker Index (RETI) : This index portfolio is the accumulation of all key European oil tanker shipping routes for crude oil, dirty petroleum products and clean products transportation. The worldscale value of each route is the only consideration when calculating the value of the index. Individual route indices are essential for shipbrokers but are not representative of the whole European market. The ReTI offers ship owners, brokers and financial institutions a clear understanding of European oil tanker market movements in a single figure (description taken from the Riverlake Group official website). The  Riverlake Group is one of the major shipping service providers.
 

- Vesseltracker.com : With more than 210,000 registered users, and over 1,000,000 visitors each month vesseltracker.com is the leading Automatic Identification System (AIS) data provider. This website offers online resources for satellite and terrestrial tracking solutions. They also offer additional data such as schedules, expected arrivals and vessel master data (description taken from its official website). It has a nice Google Earth plug in, which is free with delayed data. The AIS is an automated tracking system used on ships and by Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships and VTS stations. AIS information supplements marine radar, which continues to be the primary method of collision avoidance for water transport (see Wikipedia for more details)
 

- Lloyd's List Intelligence: it is a specialist business information service dedicated to the global maritime community. With a history of collecting maritime data dating back nearly 300 years, Lloyd's List Intelligence provides an interactive online service offering detailed vessel movements, real-time AIS positioning, comprehensive information on ships, companies, ports and casualties as well as credit reports, industry data and analysis including short-term market outlook reports. Lloyd's List Intelligence also provides a range of support services such as in-depth consultancy, investigations, due diligence, market trend analysis and credit risk appraisal for entire portfolios.  See also Wikipedia for more details.
 

- Simpson Spencer Young (SSY): it is one of the world's largest independent shipbroking group, covering fourteen countries and offers a comprehensive range of services including, Dry Cargo Chartering, Tanker Chartering, Sale & Purchase, Freight Futures, Agency & Towage, Consultancy & Research, Chemical Tanker Chartering etc. If offers a lot of free charts and other interesting links about the shipping industry.

 

Real Time Key Financial Ratios (Over a 3-year sample) + Long Term Historical Charts

- DOW/GOLD RATIO    (last 3 years)  :  http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$INDU:$GOLD&p=D&yr=3&mn=0&dy=0&id=p33713745883  

                                              LONG TERM HISTORICAL CHARTS: DOW GOLD RATIO
                                                                            (Charts from goldprice.org)                                                          200 years -  Dow Gold Ratio (Source: http://www.sharelynx.com )

 

-- GOLD/SILVER RATIO (last 3 years) :  http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$GOLD:$SILVER&p=W&yr=3&mn=0&dy=0&id=p91852955167
 

                                             LONG TERM HISTORICAL CHARTS: GOLD SILVER RATIO
                                                                       (Charts from goldprice.org)
                                                                          36 year gold silver ratio

         

- GOLD/OIL RATIO    (last 3 years)    :  http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$GOLD:$WTIC&p=W&yr=3&mn=0&dy=0&id=p81198096209

                                               LONG TERM HISTORICAL CHARTS: GOLD OIL RATIO
                                                           (Chart from gold-eagle.com)

 

 

Individuals receiving FOOD STAMPS in the US       Individuals receiving Food Stamps in the US (Monthly data reported by United States Department of Agriculture)                                                                      (Chart from www.trivisonno.com) Food stamps data:   Monthly data      Annual data by the USDA    Employment Index by Monster.com The online employment company Monster.com publishes a monthly EMPLOYMENT INDEX for the US that measures the number job openings posted on the web. From Wikipedia: "The Monster Employment Index is a monthly analysis of online job demand conducted by Monster Worldwide. Based on a monthly review of millions of opportunities culled from a large selection of corporate career sites and job boards, including Monster, the Index presents a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity in the United States, Canada and Europe. Because recruitment typically precedes actual hiring by a month or two, the Monster Employment Index is considered a labor market leading indicator and a rough gauge of the overall economy. The U.S. Monster Employment Index is released the day prior to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Situation while the Monster Employment Index Europe is published on the second Tuesday of each month, with individual reports for the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Belgium. The Monster Employment Index Canada is released quarterly".  We remark that Monster publishes a lot more detailed data, broken down by country, city, industry, etc. See here for more details    US unemployment rates: U3, U6 and Shadowstats Alternate Unemployment Rate   From Shadowstats.com: "The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment"... "Courtesy of ShadowStats.com    US real GDP annual growth: Official data from U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)  vs Shadowstats Alternate From Shadowstats.com: "The SGS-Alternate GDP reflects the inflation-adjusted, or real, year-to-year GDP change, adjusted for distortions in government inflation usage and methodological changes that have resulted in a built-in upside bias to official reporting. ".. "Courtesy of ShadowStats.com"    ECRI Weekly Leading Index - ECRI Weekly Leading Index (WLI) is released by the Economic Cycle Research Institute each Friday, and it aims at identifying the turning points in the economic cycle, which are indicated by pronounced changes in the index. The index contains (among others) an industrial markets price index developed by the organization, bond quality spread, bond yields, initial jobless claims, mortgage applications, money supply data, and stock prices. A significant decline in the WLI has been a leading indicator for six of the seven recessions since the 1960s, but  the WLI did turned negative 17 times when no recession followed: however, 14 of those declines were only slightly negative (-0.1 to -2.4) and most of them reversed after relatively brief periods. Its detailed composition is proprietary and therefore can be considered a black box (or a crystal ball, according to your taste). See more details here.          (Chart from www.dshort.com )      Philly Fed's Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index (ADS) - The Philly Fed's Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index (ADS index)  "is designed to track real business conditions at high frequency...The average value of the ADS index is zero. Progressively bigger positive values indicate progressively better-than-average conditions, whereas progressively more negative values indicate progressively worse-than-average conditions." It is based on six underlying data series (see more details here): Weekly initial jobless claims Monthly payroll employment Industrial production Personal income less transfer payments Manufacturing and trade sales Quarterly real GDP          (Chart from wwwwww.philadelphiafed.org)   Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI) -  The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index (CFNAI), which reaches back to March 1967, is based on 85 economic indicators from four categories: Production and income Employment, unemployment and hours worked Personal consumption and housing Sales, orders and inventories       The Chicago Fed National Activity Index has an excellent record for signaling the economic downturns associated with negative GDP and recessions. A decline in its 3-month moving average (MA) below the -0.7 level raises a warning that a recession may have begun. See more details here:          (Chart from wwwwww.chicagofed.org ) Vix Index         (c(chart from Bloomberg L.P.)     The most complete (and updated) US debt clock can be found here The debt clock for each US state can be found below: state of alabama debt clock state of alaska debt clock        state of arizona debt clock  state of arkansas debt clock    state of california debt clock              state of colorado debt clock     state of connecticut debt clock    state of delaware debt clock       state of florida debt clock                state of georgia debt clock              state of hawaii debt clock                   state of idaho debt clock     state of illinois debt clock            state of indiana debt clock              state of iowa debt clock                    state of kansas debt clock                 state of kentucky debt clock              state of louisiana debt clock state of maine debt clock     state of maryland debt clock           state of massachusetts debt clock  state of michigan debt clock           state of minnesota debt clock            state of mississippi debt clock     state of missouri debt clock         state of montana debt clock            state of nebraska debt clock            state of nevada debt clock              state of new hampshire debt clock    state of new jersey debt clock  state of new mexico debt clock  state of new york debt clock           state of north carolina debt clock    state of north dakota debt clock     state of ohio debt clock                      state of oklahoma debt clock     state of oregon debt clock  state of pennsylvania debt clock   state of rhode island debt clock       state of south carolina debt clock   state of south dakota debt clock       state of tennessee debt clock     state of texas debt clock               state of utah debt clock                   state of vermont debt clock             state of virginia debt clock               state of washington debt clock         state of west virginia debt clock  state of wisconsin debt clock  state of wyoming debt clock    US Household Survey Data All the previous data and chart can be found at the  Economic Research - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis    MIT - The Billion Prices Project The MIT Billion Prices Project is an academic initiative that collects prices from hundreds of online retailers around the world on a daily basis to conduct economic research. They currently monitor daily price fluctuations of approximately 5 million items sold by 300 online retailers in more than 70 countries. The data are collected every day from online retailers using a software that scans the underlying code in public webpages and stores the relevant price information in a database. The resulting dataset contains daily prices on the full array of products sold by these retailers. Their data include information on product descriptions, package sizes, brands, special characteristics (e.g. organic ), and whether the item is on sale or price control. The MIT Billion Prices Project  DAILY ONLINE PRICE INDEX is an average of individual price changes across multiple categories and retailers. The index uses a basket of goods that changes over time as products appear and disappear from a retailer s webpage. It is updated on a daily basis and leveraged to estimate annual and monthly inflation. This index is not designed to forecast official inflation announcements, but to provide real-time information on major inflation trends. The MIT Billion Prices Project ANNUAL INFLATION RATE is the percentage change between the average of the daily online price index of the last 30 days and the average for the same period a year ago. For example, on the last day of September 2010, they compare the average of the daily index between September 1st and September 30th 2010 to the average of the daily index between September 1st and September 30th 2009. On the last day of each month, the value of their annual inflation is equivalent to the annual (year-to-year) statistic reported by official offices.  (The previous description and the charts below are taken from the official webpage at http://bpp.mit.edu/methodology/) US ANNUAL INFLATION You need to upgrade your Flash Player  The Financial Forecast Center The Financial Forecast Center (FFC) specializes in the creation of forecasts related to investments, loans, finance, economics and employment. It has has been producing and publishing economic and financial market forecasts since 1997. All forecasts are generated in-house using artificial intelligence. More specifically, they use neural networks. The forecast models are 100% quantitative and use a global, long-range economic dataset. See their help page for more details. The have been quite successful so far (see here and here), but remind that simpler models can also do better, as highlighted by this comparative analysis performed by the competitor CXO Advisory  Group LLC. FFC publishes a lot of free 6-months ahead forecasts, while for long range forecasts you have to pay a fee. I report below some of their forecasts for sake of interest, but refer to their official webpage for much more information. &&n                                                SP500 Forecast                                                                                                         WTI Oil Price Forecast                                                               US Dollar to Euro Exchange Rate Forecast   FAO od Price Index and Commodities Price Indices FAO Food Price Index and Commodities Price Indices       Arable Land (FAO data) All the previous data can be found at FAOSTAT Target 2  TARGET2 is an interbank payment system for the real-time processing of cross-border transfers throughout the European Union. TARGET2 replaced TARGET (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System) in November 2007. See Wikipedia for more details.  Financial Times News  Bloomberg News Podcasts  Futures (Global Summary)  World Indices (Americas, Europe, Asia/Pacific, Africa/Mid. East) (DISCLAIMER / FAIR USE NOTICE: his site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of economic, financial and scientific issues among my university students. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:                                                                                                                      http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.  If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you are the owner of an image and want it removed, please email me and I will do so as soon as possible.)