US nonfarm payroll employment edged down -85,000 in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs. The November figure originally showed an 11,000 drop in payrolls and was revised up to show a small gain of 4,000. The broad measure of unemployment rose to 17.3% from 17.2% in October.

Irish Live Register: The seasonally adjusted Live Register total increased from 423,400 in November to 426,700 in December, an increase of 3,300, according to the CSO.  In 2009 there was an unadjusted increase in the Live Register of 133,577(+46.1%). This compares with an increase of 119,642 (+70.2%) in 2008. The unemployment rate still set to peak in summer 2010.

Marketss news on stocks, currencies and commodities; OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for November 2009 provide stronger signals of recovery than in last month’s assessment. Troughs in the underlying reference series - - the index of industrial production --  for all major seven countries, except Canada and the United Kingdom, are also visible, and the CLIs for all major seven countries have moved above their long-term trend, implying an expansionary outlook relative to trend. The outlook for major non member economies also continues to point to a recovery.

The Eurozone (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.0% in November 2009, compared with 9.9% in October. It was 8.0% in November 2008. The Dutch rate was at 3.9%; the Irish rate was at 12.9% and the Spanish rate was at 19.4%. Meanwhile the Q3 GDP 2009 estimate was unchanged from the first estimate published in December.

Five themes for the global economy in 2010: Joachim Fels, a Managing Director and US investment bank Morgan Stanley's Chief Global Fixed Income Economist and Strategist, based in London, says last year was all about the exit from the Great Recession - - and it worked courtesy of massive global policy stimulus, as expected. This year will be all about the exit from super- - expansionary monetary policy. MS expects the major central banks to start exiting around the middle of this year. He says the recovery in advanced economies will be creditless and jobless.

German exports rose for the second straight month in November 2009 and may rise 10% in 2010. Meanwhile, despite the rise, China has overtaken Germany as the world's top goods exporter.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Bill Gross, the founder of multi-billion bond fund manager PIMCO, which is one of the world's biggest investors in sovereign debt, says it's unlikely that the US economy is strong enough for the government to “gracefully exit” stimulus spending programs or that private investors would be capable of absorbing the balance in deficit funding.

Credit Default Swaps (CDS) were part of the cocktail of exotic financial instruments, which got a lot of attention in the aftermath of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers. Deutsche Bank Research has published a report which examines the goal of establishing a more stable system for these important products.

A former senior partner of US management consultants, McKinsey & Co, admitted in a court on Thursday that Galleon Hedge Fund founder and billionaire, Raj Rajaratnam, paid him $1.75 million in exchange for tips on clients of the consulting firm, giving prosecutors a potentially key break in the insider-trading case.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; EU business surveys showed that business confidence continued to improve in December while in the US, positive jobless benefit claims and retailer data, was reported today.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the Irish debt management agency which is responsible for the banking rescue agency NAMA, plans to raise €20 billion in the bond market this year. The Irish national debt had risen to €75.2 billion at December 31, 2009 from €37.6 billion in 2007.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; Stocks across the world fell Thursday MSCI Emerging Markets Index down the most in three weeks, and metals declined after China moved to curb lending. Ryanair announced today that it carried over 65 million passengers in 2009 (calendar year), an increase of over 7million passengers (13%) on its 2008 traffic. Ryanair capped off an extraordinary year of growth by carrying 5million passengers in December, 12% more than in December 2008. It also said a third bid for Aer Lingus is unlikely.

The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) said today that overall performance of Irish exports had been quite robust in 2009 given the  exceptional weakness in world demand. Total Irish exports (goods and services) fell by 1% in 2009 to €154 billion. The strength of the performance of the export sector can be gauged by comparison to the Irish GDP decline of approx 7.8% (source Central Bank) to €163 billion in 2009. The IEA forecasts growth of 2% in 2010. Today's data confirm that the Eurozone is Ireland's main trading partner.

Eurozone retail sales in November 2009 fell by 1.2% in the Eurozone 2 (EA16) and by 0.8% in the EU27 2 . In October 3 retail trade rose by 0.2% and 0.5% respectively. In the 12 months to November 2009, the retail sales index decreased by 4.0% in the Eurozone and by 2.1% in the EU27, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office.

German retail sales fell in November, signalling the fragility of the recovery from recession.

Irish house asking prices fell by 19% during 2009 and are now more than 30% below their peak levels of early 2007, according to the latest report published by property website Daft.ie. The national average asking price at the end of 2009 was €242,000 - - a fall of €107,000 from the peak.

In 2010, the European economy should transition towards a more sustainable, albeit still sub-par, recovery.  Economists at US investment bank, Morgan Stanley, say this economic transition will be reflected by a shift in the engines of growth from a swing in the inventory cycle towards an ongoing recovery in domestic demand and net exports. This transition is unlikely to be smooth, though.  They say investors should brace themselves for potential setbacks in the course of the next few quarters.  The new MS quarterly forecast profile suggests a gradual slowdown in growth momentum over the course of the year. The prognosis is that until some domestic demand dynamics start to materialise, the European economy remains in what could be called the no man's land of the business cycle.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

After slowing in the previous month, growth of the global private sector economy in manufacturing and services  accelerated in December. This was signalled by the JPMorgan Global All-Industry Output Index posting 53.4, up from the reading of 51.7 in November. The headline index has now remained above the neutral 50.0 mark in each of the past five months. The average output index reading in Q4 2009 was the highest since the final quarter of 2007.