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The issues of hunger and homelessness still remain major challenges in U.S. cities according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) report on the status of Hunger and Homelessness in 27 cities in America (listed below) that was released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on a news conference call.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Australia increased 0.6 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.1 percent in October.

EU27 real agricultural income per worker1 has increased by 12.3% in 2010, following a decrease of 10.7% in 2009, according to first estimates issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. This increase results from a rise in real agricultural income (+9.9%), together with a fall in agricultural labour input (-2.2%). These estimates for the EU27 are based on data supplied by the national authorities in the Member States.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. increased 1.1 percent in November to 112.4 (2004=100), following a 0.4 percent increase in October, and a 0.6 percent increase in September.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 47 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $27.46 billion has been spent online, marking a 12-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week (week ending Dec. 17) reached $5.15 billion in spending, an increase of 14 percent versus the corresponding week last year, with four individual days surpassing $900 million, led by Green Monday (Monday, December 13) with $954 million and Free Shipping Day (Friday, December 17) with $942 million. Free Shipping Day achieved a 61-percent increase versus the corresponding shopping day last year, highlighting the appeal and success of the promotion in which more than 1,500 merchants offered free shipping.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for France increased 0.1 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) remained unchanged in October.

Spain is slowly emerging from the deep recession that followed the global financial crisis, but must now enact major reforms to improve government finances and create jobs, according to a new OECD report.

Despite the general weakness in new construction due to the global recession, one building-related field has continued to grow: retrofits tied to improving the efficiency of facilities. A number of factors have been driving this growth, including the need to improve the energy performance of buildings for cost savings as well as the desire to obtain green building certification. A new white paper from Pike Research identifies 10 key trends that are having a strong influence on the worldwide building industry.

Fitch Ratings says in its latest quarterly Global Economic Outlook (GEO) that despite significant financial market volatility, the global economic recovery is proceeding in line with its expectations, largely due to accommodative policy support in developed markets and continued emerging-market dynamism.

Small cars and fuel efficiency were all the rage at the first major auto show of the season in Los Angeles in November, but shoppers are still attracted to larger vehicles, according to the AutoTrader.com November Trend Engine report, covering searches and site activity on AutoTrader.com for November 2010. The November report also includes the top-searched new, used and certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles for the year.