Gold World News Flash |
- Gold and Silver Soar as Confidence in World Currencies Crumbles
- Euro Parity Risk Against Dollar Remains High as Germany, France Risk Ratings Cut
- inTEST: Chairman Sends Buy Signal With Sell Order
- Sterling Rises Against Dollar on Coalition Hopes; Downtrend Likely to Resume
- China Real Estate ETF in Focus: Will the 'Bubble' Burst?
- Beyond XLF: 5 Financial ETF Alternatives
- Special GSR Gold Nugget: Jim Rogers & Chris Waltzek
- Not Just Failure, But Success Also Weighs on the Euro
- Gold and the Worry Trade
- The secret knowledge and the secret gold market
- Pricing Trend Indicates Change in Investor Sentiment
- EU Bailout Delays the Inevitable
- Investing in Gold: No Doubt About It
- Hyperinflation or Hyperdeflation?
- Bi-Polar Traders, China’s New Bear Market, The Fed’s Latest Scheme and More!
- 3 Steps to Geographically Diversifying Your Gold Stocks
- OTC Derivatives: Failed Banks or Failed Nations?
- Grandich on Korelin Radio on Gold
- Grandich, Murphy and GATA Gang Comment on Hearing Gold at New High
- Fed Audit Under Fire
- Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan
- Jim?s Mailbox
- In The News Today
- Colossus Expands Land Holdings at Serra Pelada and Wins Mining License
- Ultimate Buy Signal Gives All Clear Signal
- The Big Short - How Wall Street Destroyed Main Street
- Department of Justice/CFTC Probe JPMorgan's Silver Trading Activity
- Greek Debt and Backward Induction
- EU Tumbles Toward Failure?.. Greek Unrest May Spread
- LGMR: Gold Hits New USD High as Europe's "Bail-Out Bounce" Fails
- The Best Place for Earning 12% Dividends Right Now
- Client Update – Formation Metals
- Two Grandich Client Teleconferences
- Don’t You Just Love Gold Bubbles
- Inflation; A positive development for the Astute investor
- Recovering From Disaster Recovery
- The Power of Two: A Primer for the Lay Investor
- Record Gold: The Real Journey Begins
- Gold Forecaster – Who did the I.M.F. sell their 24.4 tonnes of gold to?
- Making Silver Coins
- Optimizing Your Gold Investment Vehicle
- Zurich: High-Level Conference on The International Monetary System
- Futures charts
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold Climbs to New Record Highs and Silver Gains Almost 4%
- Things are getting interesting again
- Gold Bull, Bitches!
- BREAKOUT
- A Reader Praises EU ‘Sacrifice’
- Strategic mortgage defaults the next time bomb
- ECB Monetary Policy: When in Debt, Do as the Debtors Do
| Gold and Silver Soar as Confidence in World Currencies Crumbles Posted: 11 May 2010 07:28 PM PDT Alrighty, it's time for some metals talk. Complete Story »
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| Euro Parity Risk Against Dollar Remains High as Germany, France Risk Ratings Cut Posted: 11 May 2010 07:16 PM PDT Forex Playbook submits: Standing behind the debt of troubled EU member states may jeopardize Germany and France's AAA credit rating, according to UniCredit. The longer term outlook for the EUR/USD remains decidedly negative, with increasing potential for parity in the months ahead. Stefan Kolek, a strategist at UniCredit, warns that the bailout package is “making debt profiles deteriorate, potentially damaging the ratings of core sovereigns. It’s a kind of Ponzi game at the highest level.” Complete Story »
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| inTEST: Chairman Sends Buy Signal With Sell Order Posted: 11 May 2010 07:15 PM PDT Eric Gomberg submits: inTEST (INTT) will be reporting its 1Q 2010 earnings today after the close and will have a terrific outlook – the questions are 1) just how good? and 2) will it matter? If the outlook is as strong as I anticipate (and the Chairman appears to anticipate), shares would seem to have dramatic upside from here - trading at just 3x my 2Q annualized run rate earnings.
Complete Story »
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| Sterling Rises Against Dollar on Coalition Hopes; Downtrend Likely to Resume Posted: 11 May 2010 07:14 PM PDT Forex Playbook submits: The GBP/USD is getting a boost on speculation that a coalition government has been formed in the UK. However, the temporary rebound is likely to give way to the longer term downtrend in the days ahead. The British pound has recovered nicely from its session low of 1.4720 against the US dollar, last trading at 1.4995. The rally comes amid speculation that a coalition government will be formed, which would make agreement on debt fighting measures easier to achieve. However, debt levels in the UK have reached disastrous proportions, making the mere agreement on measures the least of the new government's concerns. Complete Story »
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| China Real Estate ETF in Focus: Will the 'Bubble' Burst? Posted: 11 May 2010 07:12 PM PDT Michael Johnston submits: A number of statistical bulletins released in recent weeks have served as an excellent illustration of the ever-widening cap between the world’s emerging and developed economies. While the U.S. and Europe struggle to stay afloat and eke out positive GDP growth, the concern in China is very different. Beijing has been concerned in recent months about an overheating economy, seeking to reel in stimulus policies introduced during the depths of the recent recession. The latest round of data indicates that, for the most part, these policies have been successful in accomplishing their stated objectives. But one troublesome area continues to cause anxiety among investors around the globe; Chinese real estate prices have become a runaway freight train, surging at rates that seem unsustainable. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said this week that average urban property prices climbed 12.8% in April from a year earlier, accelerating from March’s impressive 11.7% pace. Consumer price inflation also picked up, rising from 2.4% to 2.8% on a year-over-year basis, although this rate remains below the government’s stated 3% target. April property sales were down slightly from March levels, but still came in about 27% higher than the previous year according to the new statistics. Complete Story »
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| Beyond XLF: 5 Financial ETF Alternatives Posted: 11 May 2010 07:07 PM PDT Michael Johnston submits: Over the past two years, the financial sector has seen more than its fair share of ups and downs. After being pushed to the brink of complete collapse after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, financials recovered to reclaim big chunks of the ground lost and finish 2009 as one of the year’s best performers. The financial sector has been back in focus in recent weeks as the government brought fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and lawmakers in Washington have been scrambling to push through a comprehensive regulatory overhaul. The enduring volatility of this sector has done little to diminish its appeal to investors. While those with a long-term focus may have shied away from financials, the increased volatility has attracted more active investors who measure their holdings periods in hours and days, not years. By far the most popular ETF in the Financial Equity ETFdb Category Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF), which has amassed nearly $7 billion in assets under management and trades on average nearly 120 million shares daily. Complete Story »
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| Special GSR Gold Nugget: Jim Rogers & Chris Waltzek Posted: 11 May 2010 07:00 PM PDT Special GSR Gold Nugget: Jim Rogers & Chris Waltzek
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| Not Just Failure, But Success Also Weighs on the Euro Posted: 11 May 2010 06:53 PM PDT Marc Chandler submits: Many observers are attributing the euro's weakness to concerns that the measures taken by the EU/ECB/IMF may fail to contain the crisis. There is surely an element of this. Yet that interpretation may rely too much on the foreign exchange market rather than the debt market, where the crisis began. Looking at the dramatic rally yesterday in Club Med bonds, especially Greece and Portugal, suggests that the measures have succeeded reducing premiums and credit default swap prices. Money markets are seeing an easing of tensions as well. To reconcile the weakness of the euro and the easing of liquidity concerns, one could conclude that it is not the risk of failure that is weighing on the euro but the risk of success. Complete Story »
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 06:43 PM PDT Felix Salmon submits: Is it a coincidence that the price of gold hit an all-time high just as David Cameron was becoming the prime minister of Britain? Yes. But it’s also indicative of the enormous amount of uncertainty that continues to pervade the market. If you’re just looking at the stock market, you’re not looking at the most sensitive barometer of fears about the global economy in general and the eurozone in particular. As Paul Krugman notes, the euro/dollar exchange rate is probably a better place to look, and that’s now back down below 1.27, after trading at 1.50 as recently as December. For what it’s worth, here’s the price of gold in euros (click to enlarge): Complete Story »
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| The secret knowledge and the secret gold market Posted: 11 May 2010 06:30 PM PDT
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| Pricing Trend Indicates Change in Investor Sentiment Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT Anyone paying attention to the stock markets and the precious metals markets will tell you that the correlation that we've grown accustomed to has flip-flopped. Previously, precious metals and the stock markets traded in unison; a 2% up day for the stock markets meant 2% up in gold and silver. A drop in the stock markets meant a drop in the metals markets. However, this is no longer true, as precious metals have broken free! Why the Trending Matters Correlations between a commodity and an index fund may not seem to be that important. What's the big deal if the two rise and fall together, right? Actually, the correlation between silver, gold and the stock market is hugely important. If the stock market and precious metals were to rise and fall together, it implies that the market sees them as equals; that is, when the economics improve for one, they improve equally for the other. This type of correlation between precious metals and the stock markets has...
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| EU Bailout Delays the Inevitable Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT It took absolutely nothing to bring the stock markets to their knees, but nearly $1 trillion to give them piece of mind. Yes, the European bailout may solve temporary woes, but in the end, it is nothing more than a temporary solution. How the Bailout Works The bulk of the money allocated to bailing out Europe's debt ridden nations is to be borrowed on behalf of other more creditworthy nations. European officials have decided that 16 nations currently using the Euro as their currency would put up 440 billion Euro in loans, as well as a 60 billion Euro infusion from the EU itself. The 440 billion Euro is to be borrowed by the most solvent and largest nations and then given to Greece and Spain. Since Germany, France, and other more fiscally responsible nations can borrow at rates far lower than Greece and Spain, the EU hopes the measure will allow the countries to solve the current fiscal issues with money due back to creditors years in the future. The In...
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| Investing in Gold: No Doubt About It Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT I spend a lot of time worrying about how "We're freaking doomed!" and thus I spend a lot of time crying in fear and occasionally screaming in outrage, a fact that has gotten me thrown out of a lot of bars, and which has not made me any new friends, either, which Suits Me Fine (SMF), actually, since everybody I meet seems to be a moron who cannot see the wisdom of buying gold, silver and oil to protect themselves against the ruinous inflation in prices that will follow the Federal Reserve's creating So Freaking Much Money (SFMM) and all the rest of the world's banks creating SFMM and all of the world's governments (except Norway, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong) deficit-spending their little pea-brains out. As to how this is insane, I agree that it is insane, and as to what becomes of all this money, I scratch my head, as there are not that many places where one can constantly invest tens of billions of new dollars at a crack. Perhaps this is what caused Rick Ackerman of Rick's Picks newsl...
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| Hyperinflation or Hyperdeflation? Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT position papers of professorfekete #1, May 5, 2010. The Quantity Theory of Money James Turk’s article Hyperinflation Looms dated April 20, 2010, is based on Quantity Theory of Money (QTM). It draws an analogy between Weimar Germany of 1923 and the United States of 2010. Both precepts are invalid. As far as the QTM is concerned, it suffices to point to the very fact, admitted by Turk, that it is possible to have a shortage of money simultaneously with the overworking of the printing presses. Hyperinflation is not the same as the ultimate inflation of the money supply. It is the ultimate depreciation of the currency unit. The two concepts are far from being the same, QTM notwithstanding. The reason why QTM fails is that money is not one-dimensional. It is in fact two-dimensional. Quantity is one, and the velocity of circulation is the other dimension. Central banks control the former, and the market firmly controls the latter. As long as fair weathe...
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| Bi-Polar Traders, China’s New Bear Market, The Fed’s Latest Scheme and More! Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT The 5 min. Forecast May 11, 2010 12:59 PM by Addison Wiggin & Ian Mathias [LIST] [*] U.S. traders go bi-polar… the overseas market you should really be watching instead [*] EU bailout sneakier than advertised (of course)… details on a new Fed/ECB manipulation plan [*] Did Bill Clinton just call for a return to the gold standard? [*] Byron King on where deepwater drilling will likely slow down… and where it won’t [/LIST] Anyone else having a good laugh at this? We know several hormone-stricken teenagers with greater emotional stability than U.S. “investors.” Just two days after “the biggest point fall in history” the Dow enjoyed its biggest point and percentage daily gain in 14 months. Quite naturally, the Dow opened down about 100 points this morning. Heh. Traders can’t make up their minds on Europe or manage their computer trading systems. They were suckered into buying the EU’s “shock an...
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| 3 Steps to Geographically Diversifying Your Gold Stocks Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT By Jeff Clark, Senior Editor, Casey’s Gold & Resource Report and author of this new FREE Special Report: ‘When Is the Right Time to Buy Gold?’ Jerry’s broker wrinkled his nose in disapproval. “I don’t like it, Jerry,” he said in a grave tone, as if scolding a misbehaving child. “Why don’t you invest in the gold company I told you about?” Jerry thought this might happen. His broker was traditional, conventional, and only pushed company products. And the man knew embarrassingly little about gold stocks. “Because I want to diversify my gold stocks. There’s a lot of gold around the world. And this company is capitalizing on that.” The broker was shaking his head. “The company I recommend is right here in North America, Jerry. There’s no need to buy one with mines halfway around the world. Besides, we don’t know what the politics are over there.” Disappoin...
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| OTC Derivatives: Failed Banks or Failed Nations? Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT By Ron Hera May 3, 2010 ©2010 Hera Research, LLC Economic bubbles are not recognized by those inside of them, and the entire Western world has become quietly trapped inside the largest economic bubble in history. The global financial crisis that began in 2008 has been attributed to sub-prime mortgage lending and mortgage backed securities (MBSs), such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which were revealed as toxic assets. While the root cause of the financial crisis is assumed to have been the residential real estate asset price bubble, the underlying systemic risk, and the primary reason for the "too big to fail" doctrine whereby governments were compelled to save financial institutions at any cost, lies in over the counter (OTC) derivatives. The suspension of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) mark-to-market rule in 2009 preserved the value of bank balance sheets, i.e., of their mortgage portfolios, but what was of far greater importance ...
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| Grandich on Korelin Radio on Gold Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here May 11, 2010 10:44 AM Listen [url]http://www.grandich.com/[/url] grandich.com...
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| Grandich, Murphy and GATA Gang Comment on Hearing Gold at New High Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here May 11, 2010 11:20 AM Watch And what were they singing to the gold perma-bears and their $800 and below gold? And finally us tin-foil hats who most didn’t give an ounce of credibility say to those who think they can still hide and get away with it [url]http://www.grandich.com/[/url] grandich.com...
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that the measure to audit the Federal Reserve is coming under continuous fire from the central bank and its cronies. For the first time since the Federal Reserve was created nearly a century ago, they have hired an actual lobbyist to pound the pavement on Capitol Hill. This is a desperate effort to hang on to the privilege of secrecy and lack of accountability they have enjoyed for so long. Last week showed they are getting their money’s worth in the Senate. At the very last minute on the floor of the Senate, supposed compromise language was agreed to and substituted in the Sanders Amendment to the Financial Reform Bill. This language was acceptable to the administration, committee leadership, and to the Fed. The trouble is, while it is better than no audit at all, it guts the spirit of a truly meaningful audit of the most crucial transactions of the Fed. In fact, rather than still calling the Sa...
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| Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... May 11, 2010 10:24 AM Dear CIGAs, Talk about letting the wind out of the sails of the Euro party boat – as mentioned yesterday, considering the fact that EURO-TARP was worth nearly $1 trillion, the fact that the Euro opened the Sunday-evening session on its high and then pretty much went lower from there, was a sign that the market was signaling the problems in Euro land are not going away anytime soon. When a currency gaps higher and then sells off from there, it is the same thing as the Forex markets collectively slapping the face of the monetary and political leaders of a nation. The authorities may have bought themselves some time and served to prevent an immediate meltdown but the ugly truth is that for all the fanfare, the underlying disease that caused the symptoms has NOT been addressed. The problem – too many Euro zone countries have too many people living off the public dole and they can no longer afford it. Exactly how is Greece,...
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... May 11, 2010 11:21 AM Dear Jim, I find irony in the fact that Gordon Brown resigned today and that Gold has begun the second leg of its journey. Gordon Brown fixed the bottom and $1000 later in the fullness of time marks the end of this stage in gold’s bull market and the end of Brown’s political career. Gold and brown – two opposite colors CIGA Ken Dear Jim, After you had sold your gold near $800+ an ounce around 1980, you had told me at a gold gathering in 2004 at a sweet little Inn near Sharon, CT that you then purchased long term treasuries with your winnings. Since the political and financial landscape is so different now with the level of corruption, QE, and OTC derivatives that now exist, will you sell all of your gold holdings this time around? If you do, can you see yourself buying US Treasuries again above 10% interest rates when this time around our country faces bankruptcy and a Weimar style money creati...
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... May 11, 2010 11:23 AM Dear CIGAs, Bertha, my pet pig, even though waiting for me at the Golden Bridge, is I hear taking great exception to the reference of PIIGS for certain weak EU states. Personally, I think pigs are beautiful and it is a sin to eat pork. Bertha was leash trained, but once she moved above 450 pounds we could not determine who was taking whom for a walk. Please note the chin scratching, something Bertha demanded. She had a huge sheep dip and a shower head that previously belonged to my neighbor Henry Kravits. My brother in law, living with us as a product of one of his divorces, knew Henry’s property manager. The shower was started by her biting a simple control. She took at least 12 showers a day and her scent was like maple syrup. She loved me very much. Her feet never touched mud. My middle daughter told me that if I did not stop showing her friends my pig she was not coming home from boarding high school. ...
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| Colossus Expands Land Holdings at Serra Pelada and Wins Mining License Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT By James West and Jonathan T. Orr MidasLetter.com Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 Those bold investors that bet on Colossus Minerals Inc (TSX: CSI) when Midas letter first wrote them up two years ago, will be pleased but probably not surprised at the company’s recent announcement of having received their mining license for their high-grade gold–platinum-palladium Serra Pelada project in Para State, Brazil, bringing them ever closer to production at this famed deposit. This announcement comes fast on the heels of their recent purchase of 7 square kilometers of ground surrounding Serra Pelada owned by Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE), Brazil’s and one of the world’s biggest mining companies. The company felt the additional acquisition necessary to maximize the mineral potential of this ‘gold rush’ area. Colossus is a big and...
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| Ultimate Buy Signal Gives All Clear Signal Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here May 11, 2010 09:59 AM There’s been no better signal that the “mother” of all secular gold bull markets can continue then doing the opposite of what the “Tokyo Rose” of gold has predicted. Today on the usually highly respected BNN Network, Tokyo Rose not only got to peddle a product (which is a worthy in this case) but then spewed his usual negative view on gold. He think by associating his view with others who have also badly misjudged gold (but at least haven’t been wrong anywhere near he has for years) that somehow makes his once again wrong predictions more credible. But then as he’s always certain to do, he twists and turns real facts by saying he predicted gold going to $1280 this year as if that comment suggested he was bullish at the time of the prediction and encouraging ownership as well. While most times I simply enjoy poking fun at ...
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| The Big Short - How Wall Street Destroyed Main Street Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT Day after day, bankers have been paraded before Congressional committees regarding their role in the financial crisis which brought the financial system to the edge of the abyss on September 18,2008. Every one has claimed that they were not responsible in any way for the disaster. They blame once in a lifetime circumstances that no one could have anticipated. It was a perfect storm and they had no way of knowing. These Harvard MBA Wall Street geniuses, who collected compensation in excess of $100 million each before the collapse, had no idea what was going on within their own firms. Ignorance and stupidity is no excuse for losing a trillion dollars. The truth is that the CEO’s of all the Wall Street banks encouraged a casino culture of greed and gambling. The generation of fees became the sole driving incentive for every firm. It started with collateralizing subprime mortgages into packages of mortgage backed securities. Then they created Credit Default Swaps as in...
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| Department of Justice/CFTC Probe JPMorgan's Silver Trading Activity Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT "The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- Of cabbages--and kings-- And why the sea is boiling hot-- And whether pigs have wings." Lewis Carroll from The Walrus and The Carpenter [Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There - 1872] Well, the ECB and the IMF did it on the weekend. They came down firmly on the side of "print, or die"... not necessarily to save Greece and the rest of the PIIGS... but the banks who lent them all the money in the first place. The die is cast... our fate is sealed. Not that it wasn't before... but this really puts the final nail in the coffin. As many of have said... "you can't borrow your way out of debt... or spend your way to prosperity." More on this later. Gold [and the dollar] got sold off the moment that trading began in the Far East on Monday morning [5:00 p.m. Eastern time in New York on Sunday night]... and before the smoke cleared, gold was dow...
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| Greek Debt and Backward Induction Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT Excerpt from the Hussman Funds' Weekly Market Comment (5/10/10):[INDENT]On Sunday, the IMF approved its 30 billion portion of the 110 billion euro bailout package for Greece - the remaining funds to come from the European Union. The reason for all of this cooperation, of course, is that Greece has enormous debt that is owed in the euro, a currency that it cannot devalue. For many years, Greece has allowed government spending and wage agreements to grow rapidly, thanks to ability to borrow in euros as if it were little different from Germany or France. Unfortunately, the Greek economy faces a debt burden that its economy is now unable to service. If Greece were not part of the European Monetary Union and its debt was denominated in drachmas, it would be able to satisfy its debts by devaluing its currency, essentially making Greek goods, services and wages worth less in terms of foreign goods, services, wages and currencies. In other words, it could alter...
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| EU Tumbles Toward Failure?.. Greek Unrest May Spread Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT EU Tumbles Toward Failure? Tuesday, May 11, 2010 – by Staff Report Has Europe done the impossible and helped itself to a free lunch? That's certainly what it looks like, to judge by the performance of equity, currency and fixed income markets following the EU's €750 billion rescue plan. A relief rally sent shares rocketing across the world, led by an almost unbelievable 20% surge in European stocks. Rescued government bonds rallied as central banks threw themselves into quantitative easing. And the euro recovered much of the ground it lost when, during the past couple of weeks, investors thought the currency was heading towards extinction. Was Milton Friedman wrong? Or maybe this lunch isn't really free? The notion that these rescues are costless, which took hold following the wave of fiscal and monetary policy actions put in place following the credit crunch, looked to be fading recently. People started to realize private sector debt was merely be...
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| LGMR: Gold Hits New USD High as Europe's "Bail-Out Bounce" Fails Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT London Gold Market Report from Adrian Ash BullionVault 12:20 ET, Tues 11 May Gold Hits New USD High as Europe's "Bail-Out Bounce" Fails THE PRICE OF GOLD hit a new record high against the US Dollar at Tuesday's PM Fix in London, surging more than 3% from yesterday's low as world stock markets fell once again with commodities. The Euro dropped 4¢ from yesterday's "bail-out bounce", giving back most of Monday's gain to trade below $1.27. Gold priced in Euros touched fresh highs above €30,970 per kilo. "Gold is bullish, as global financial markets are battling to gain traction," says Walter de Wet at Standard Bank. "The market still doubts the success of any rescue package put in place in Europe. This is evident in US government bond yields that are pushing lower again as investors flee to safe-haven assets. US investors wanting to Buy Gold saw the price jump to $1222 by mid-afternoon in London today, beating the previous Gold-Fix peak of $1218 set in D...
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| The Best Place for Earning 12% Dividends Right Now Posted: 11 May 2010 06:29 PM PDT By Tom Dyson Tuesday, May 11, 2010 This might sound strange, but I'm leery of high dividend yields… As a full-time dividend stock analyst, I regularly screen the market for high-yield stocks. My searches usually bring up hundreds of results. Right now, for example, 95 stocks are yielding over 10%. These dividend yields look great… until I look at the businesses behind them. They're mostly garbage. The high yield means the stock price has recently collapsed or the dividend payment is about to collapse… or both. In other words, I generally treat high dividend yields the same way I'd treat a colorful snake: I steer clear. That said, there are always exceptions to this rule. Over the years, I've been able to find pockets of rock-solid high-yield stocks buried in the trash. Recently, I found one of these "pockets" in the mortgage industry… There are two types of mortgages. First, there are mortgages insured by the government. In the indust...
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| Client Update – Formation Metals Posted: 11 May 2010 06:28 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here May 11, 2010 06:52 AM Last Friday's news (May 07, 2010, Formation Metals Raises $10 Million) from FCO seems to have fallen on deaf ears.* Their initial news release dated March 18th proposed an $8.6 million financing to be done at $1.50 – when their stock closed that day at $1.43.* Formation was still able to close these latest private placement offerings at $1.50 when their stock closed at $1.25 – basically at a 20% premium to the market.* No doubt there was pressure on them to reduce the offering price to close the financing sooner. FCO's financing consisted of $8 million raised through an unsecured (convertible @$1.50) debenture and $2 million raised in a $1.50 unit offering.* Of course they could not have anticipated the financial riots in Greece and the previous day's largest loss ever of the Dow in the course of a trading day.* The timing of the release could not have been worse...
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| Two Grandich Client Teleconferences Posted: 11 May 2010 06:28 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here May 11, 2010 05:23 AM Two of my clients who I anticipate have plenty of good news to share with shareholders will host teleconferences tomorrow: [LIST] [*]Anooraq Resources [*]Evolving Gold [/LIST] [url]http://www.grandich.com/[/url] grandich.com...
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| Don’t You Just Love Gold Bubbles Posted: 11 May 2010 06:28 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here May 11, 2010 06:02 AM For all these like me who “laughed” at the gold bubble-bursting forecasts and lived through countless gold is going to $800 (and much lower)* forecasts, I’m here to tell you those gold haters were right… Did you say right Grandich? Yes, when go hits $2,400 they’re going to split it 3 for 1-LOL! I love it when a plan comes together! P.S. Video of me versus gold perma-bears coming to get me [url]http://www.grandich.com/[/url] grandich.com...
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| Inflation; A positive development for the Astute investor Posted: 11 May 2010 06:08 PM PDT We all pretty much have felt the effects of inflation in one form or another. However, economists and the central bankers choose to define inflation as an increase in price of goods. This is a very clever way to actually hide what they are doing.
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| Recovering From Disaster Recovery Posted: 11 May 2010 06:06 PM PDT Annaly Salvos submits: The challenge confronting the Federal Reserve is unusual in the history of central banking. How do you tighten when the blunt instrument of monetary policy—the overnight lending rate—has been rendered ineffective. Fed-watchers recall the 2002 speech by Ben Bernanke in which he enumerated the unconventional policy options that “a sufficiently determined” Fed could utilize in the event that it had brought the Fed Funds rate down to zero. The tools he covered showed a central banker more than willing to think and act outside of the box in the right set of circumstances. Once lowering the Fed Funds rate was no longer an option, he envisioned bringing down long rates through purchases of Treasuries and Agencies, directly lending to banks and the private sectors using a wide range of assets as collateral, buying foreign government debt or supporting tax cuts and other fiscal stimuli. And it could inflate. In the phrase that earned him the sobriquet Helicopter Ben, he famously said, “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.” Complete Story »
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| The Power of Two: A Primer for the Lay Investor Posted: 11 May 2010 06:04 PM PDT The Mercenary Geologist investing philosophy requires actively trading stocks. There are no "buy and hold" scenarios in my portfolio. That said, there are trades and there are investments but that's a subject to be tackled in a future musing. My trading methodology employs a very conservative strategy to speculate in a very high risk market sector.
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| Record Gold: The Real Journey Begins Posted: 11 May 2010 06:03 PM PDT Those of you who have been following this blog from its humble beginnings know that I have been consistently bullish on the long-term prospects of gold, and consistently bearish on the long-term prospects for the American economy. With gold sitting at $1,232 dollars and sovereign debt concerns entering the system, my thesis is unfolding before our very eyes.
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| Gold Forecaster – Who did the I.M.F. sell their 24.4 tonnes of gold to? Posted: 11 May 2010 05:40 PM PDT
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| Optimizing Your Gold Investment Vehicle Posted: 11 May 2010 05:30 PM PDT
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| Zurich: High-Level Conference on The International Monetary System Posted: 11 May 2010 04:23 PM PDT Held today, this co-sponsored event (SNB/IMF) was first announced April 27th, and at the time of that announcement I provided some important backround context in commentary at this post and then additionally at this post on that same date. Philipp Hildebrand, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, offered today's opening remarks to get the conference started on a fairly even-footed note. He said, in part:
In my own introductory remarks (linked) I explained the significance of the Swiss role hosting this conference. In contrast, however, you can see from the concluding remarks offered by the managing director of the IMF, that the IMF was present merely as a formal courtesy to this relic of the montary Old Guard which is doomed to obsolescence right along with its socially unworkable SDR-esque dogma imposed top-down by crackpot economists. They'd be better informed if they stepped away from their computer models long enough to simply witness what the evolution of the gold market (and escalating price) is trying to tell them all so loud and clear. However, in his concluding remarks, the IMF's managing director grasped at least one key point exactly right:
And he also got this important concept exactly right:
If the IMF would put aside its own cognitive dissonance and acquiescence to the reality of that final statement, any further discussion of the SDR proposals should be forthwith abandoned as simply the latest of the abysmally hopeless pipe dreams of the "academics and policymakers" referred to by Frenkel. Our improved system will instead be delivered on the shoulders of its own evolution — the market's natural selection for that system of assets and accounting that provides all the desired qualities of resilience, flexibility, and stability. A more openly employed structure of mark-to-market gold reserves is coming to an international monetary system near you — at a price that will likely shock your senses, but more importantly will shock our comatose global economy back onto the road of economic health and longevity. R.
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 04:07 PM PDT
Starting as of this evening; everyday I will provide futures charts for the night owls. Since many of you do not have access to a Bloomberg terminal or a retail trading platform I have found the idea of providing futures charts valuable. I will post only the most significant indexes, currencies and commodities without going into individual stocks and ETFs. The point of this is, beside the aforementioned one, to paint a clear picture before the next trading day opens. So I hope you find this valuable. All futures can be seen by clicking on the link provided below the charts.
Equity Indexes
Energy
Metals Agricultural commodities
USTs
Currencies
You can monitor all other non-listed futures here. Good night and pleasant dreams.
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| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold Climbs to New Record Highs and Silver Gains Almost 4% Posted: 11 May 2010 04:00 PM PDT Gold rose as much as $24.30 to as high as $1224.20 by about 10AM EST in New York before it fell back off a bit in the last few hours of trade, but it still made a new record closing high and ended with a gain of 1.61%. Silver climbed to as high as $19.322 by early afternoon in New York and ended with a gain of 3.89%.
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| Things are getting interesting again Posted: 11 May 2010 03:35 PM PDT
After gapping up a few hundred pips on news of the gajillion euro bailout, the euro is back near its lows against the dollar with pervasive selling into strength. Europe is China's biggest export partner, and with talks of rampant asset bubbles and consequent monetary tightening coming out of there, things look increasingly bad for China. The Shanghai Index is indeed down over 20% off its highs, putting it in technical bear market territory, by some definitions. This weakness is spreading to commodities, for which China has been showing record demand in recent quarters, with crude and copper both down 12% off their highs. And this, of course, has spread to the Aussie Dollar, with the AUD/USD down close to 400 pips off its high and approaching a definitive 200DMA breakdown, which has been what I've been calling for as a terrific short trigger for various risk assets, including equities.
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 03:24 PM PDT
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| Posted: 11 May 2010 03:19 PM PDT By Toby Connor, GoldScents  I went over a bit of strategy in tonight's report for those not already in. I'm going to go over stats and cyclical structure for the remainder of the C-wave in tomorrow's report. For those of you thinking about getting side tracked by a meaningless daily cycle low that is coming due, let me tell you from bitter experience the one thing you don't want to do is lose your position at the beginning of a C-wave or C-wave continuation. At this point the daily cycle corrections aren't profit taking opportunities. That will come as we near the end of the C-wave. At this time a daily cycle low is a last chance opportunity to get as invested as you are comfortable with, whether that be 50%, 75% or 100% will be up to each individual. Don't forget in bull markets and especially during aggressive C-wave advances the surprises come on the upside. Daily cycles can and often do run exceptionally long as a C-wave starts to gain momentum so losing ones position in an attempt to "time" a short term correction can potentially cost one many percentage points. It's just not worth the risk. This is the time to heed "Old Turkey's" advise. Folks I have no doubt this will be the greatest bull market that any of us will ever see in our lifetime. Since November of `08 the precious metal sector has been doing everything but hit investors over the head with a pipe to let us know this is the leading sector of this bull. Miners are the only sector exhibiting massive accumulation.  Compare the above chart to other sectors during this bull and you will see where the smart money has been positioning. 
   These are just a few sectors, but the picture is the same no matter where you look. Steadily declining volume. Only miners are showing heavy accumulation. Once the HUI & silver join gold, platinum and palladium at new all time highs the entire precious metal sector will move into a vacuum with no overhead resistance. That is going to be incredibly bullish for the sector.        Toby Connor A financial blog primarily focused on the analysis of the secular gold bull market. If you would like to be added to the email list that receives notice of new posts to GoldScents, or have questions, email Toby.
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| A Reader Praises EU ‘Sacrifice’ Posted: 11 May 2010 03:18 PM PDT By Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks Because we called the latest Eurobailout a PR hoax in our most recent commentary, we'll give equal time to a quite different point of view posted in the Rick's Picks forum. The author is "Cameroni," a frequent contributor who says the European Union deserves praise for not shunning Greece and the PIIGs, especially since it will require considerable sacrifice on the part of the "haves." Here's Cam: "The European Union must be congratulated. They have acted responsibly by choosing union over self interest and Nationalism. Instead of shunning Greece, shutting her out and locking the door behind them they have instead made a tremendous sacrifice and have opted instead to take a share in Greece's misfortunes despite the obvious risks. And they have put their collective neck on the line for the whole union by establishing what amounts to an insurance program for the rest of the sick patients in the group. The pain will be shared while expectations of future growth have been lowered.
"At the same time they have sent a clear message to bond rating agencies. You can be replaced. Nobody needs a Rhodes Scholarship anymore to see the clear connection between the Bond raters and currency speculators. Nor do we need a microscope to see how destabilizing those influences can be nor how quickly the global financial system can be brought to the brink of economic calamity. The events of the last two weeks has made it clear to all just how disruptive those influences can be and what negative implications it has for both political stability and global markets. Their blunder will bring on change. No Child's Game "This is not a child's games anymore. Future financial reforms may well include putting limits on the speculation of currencies. We will see what transpires with the G20 meetings next month in Canada. I think it is safe to say that some dramatic reforms could well be in the offing. There is simply too much at stake to allow the greed and opportunism of a handful of people married to the lightning speed of computers and established market practices to impact the very stability of nations. We just witnessed a very close call with a bad destiny. A Euro in sharp decline combined with extreme fear, even panic and markets in flight. There were no fat fingers. The near crash was precipitated by a panic sell-off that triggered backstops and cascaded the market downward in a whirlwind of computer generated trades. Many investors and some traders were not even present to witness it all except on the six-o-clock news. Suddenly presets and program trading is in the spotlight. Will we allow computers to crash the system any more than continue to tolerate speculators bringing no less than the stability to the European Union into doubt? "But with so much liquidity sloshing around the system and always on the lookout for better investing opportunities, it has instead found easy kills in currency markets. Fortunes can be made in the blink of an eye. Counties can be ruined. And it is all too easy when the targets are so public and vulnerable and systems are in place to capitalize on those misfortunes. Capital is now being misallocated in the most dangerous and irresponsible way. Short term gains are surely going to lead to big long term losses. Taming Speculators "This is not hunting for bargains. It is more like shooting chickens in a barrel. That is why the European Union has done the right thing and why I congratulate them. They have taken steps to tame the speculators and rescued their own currency through policies that will bring stability back to the Eurozone. "Now if only those pesky Greek citizens would just get on board and cooperate it just might work."
(If you'd like to have Rick's Picks commentary delivered free each day to your e-mail box, click here.)
More articles from Rick Ackerman….
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| Strategic mortgage defaults the next time bomb Posted: 11 May 2010 03:17 PM PDT By Sol Palha, Tactical Investor The first group of defaulters was individuals who were conned into buying houses at teaser rates and had a very hard time making payments when rates reset to market rates. The next group of individuals was individuals with decent to good credit; this group started to default because one or both members of the family lost their jobs and therefore, could no longer make payments on the mortgage. Now we have the next wave; the strategic defaulters. This group's decision to default is based on cold logic. The value of the home of their homes has dropped so much that it no longer makes sense to make payments on a house that is trading well below market value. "Strategic" defaults accounted for at least 12 percent of all defaults in February, up from about 4 percent in mid-2007, according to a recent Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS – News) report. Analysts led by Vishwanath Tirupattur classified a default as strategic when a homeowner who hadn't previously been delinquent made an on-time mortgage payment one month; skipped payments for the next three months; and stayed current on other consumer debt of $10,000 or more. Full Story In a way this it's payback time for the banks; the banks swindled millions of innocent homeowners when they turned a blind eye and even encouraged the sale of fraudulent mortgages via the liar loan application process. Then when the S**T hit the fan, they came running to Washington and like faithful concubines, Washington bailed them out with taxpayer dollars. Thus they were handsomely rewarded for their illegal activities. Now it appears that the individual home owner is deciding to stick it to them and if this new trend picks up steam, a massive wave of new defaults could hit the market, further souring an already weak real estate market. Conclusion Housing analysts say strategic defaults mainly occur when a home's value has dropped below the balance remaining on the mortgage. A homeowner in that position may decide that continuing to make payments is throwing money away, or may default to get the lender to modify the loan. All told, borrowers who aren't making mortgage payments are probably skipping roughly $100 billion annually, an amount equal to 1 percent of consumer spending, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. Zandi likens the money to "a form of stimulus, a little tax cut."Full Story Zillow.com states that one in five U.S. homes with a mortgage has "negative equity" so the number of potential strategic defaulters is rather huge; what we have on our hands is a ticking time bomb and purchasing real estate now is one of the dumbest moves an investor could make. Long term the trend for housing is still down. Individual that are bearish can use strong rallies to short stocks in the housing sector such as LEN, BZH, etc. ETF players can open up positions in REK, SRS, and if you really want to take an aggressive position you can short via Direxion's DRV. SKF is another option; it is an ETF that shorts the financial sector.
Disclosure: We have no position in the stated investments
VIP futures 5 year win ratio 75% More articles from the Tactical Investor….
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| ECB Monetary Policy: When in Debt, Do as the Debtors Do Posted: 11 May 2010 03:17 PM PDT The euro-bailout stole the headlines yesterday, while cheering investors around the globe – especially those investors who own the stocks and bonds of bankrupt nations. Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian stocks all soared more than 10% on the day, as yields on high-risk sovereign debt plummeted. Greek 10-year yields tumbled nearly 500 basis points – from 12.47% to 7.77% – as buyers rushed back into the market. But one has to wonder what sort of buyers these might have been. Were they: 1) The sort of buyers who sensed a bona fide buying opportunity; 2) The sort who sensed a bona fide short squeeze or; 3) Traders for the European Central Bank? Our guess would be #3, followed closely behind by #2. In other words, almost every aspect of yesterday's trading looked like a great big short squeeze. Since investors around the world have been establishing hefty short positions in all things euro-related, the threat of a $1 trillion buyer for said assets was more than enough to send the shorts rushing for cover…or rather, TO cover. "At the lightning speed that markets operate in today's world," says David Rosenberg, "this short squeeze could be over [already]…Recall the initial reaction to the TARP program [was]…a huge immediate relief rally of 11% that gave way to a 30% slide to the lows. The bottom was only turned more than four months later, once the kinks were worked out and the specifics of the stress tests were announced. Keep this in mind if anyone decides to extrapolate today's short-covering rally into the future. "In the final analysis," Rosenberg concludes, "if the EU lends money to Greece or to any other problem country in the zone, debt ratios…in the region will only rise further. It will be interesting to see how the rating agencies handle this. It cannot be lost on them, or the global investment community, that while loans, guarantees and central bank provisioning can deal effectively with liquidity issues, they are ineffective in addressing what's really at stake here, which are structural fiscal issues. So the deal over the weekend is only going to be successful and so far as it is backed up by meaningful reforms… "What is clear is that any rally in the euro should be shorted, because the line between fiscal and monetary policy has just become blurred. The cost of the ECB helping drive long-term yields in the periphery [countries] lower is jeopardizing the sanctity of the Central Bank balance sheet…Of all the knee-jerk bounces today, the euro is the one most vulnerable to a reversal." Our only surprise here at The Daily Reckoning was that the trillion-dollar bailout announcement failed to resuscitate the euro or to suppress gold…even for one day. The short-covering rally in the euro produced very meager results. After jumping nearly 3% in early New York trading, the euro ended the day with a miniscule gain. Gold, on the other hand, dipped only slightly from the near-record highs it hit last Friday. Apparently, investors deduce that the ECB's bailout scheme is inflationary, at a minimum. Somehow, some way, the ECB will conjure euros into existence that do not exist today. Thus, much like the Federal Reserve's activities during the last 18 months, the ECB will dramatically expand the supply of money and credit in an effort to "rescue" the euro. Ironic, isn't it? Trying to defend the value of a currency by producing more of it? In all of this, gold seems likely to benefit. Eric Fry ECB Monetary Policy: When in Debt, Do as the Debtors Do originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, offers a uniquely refreshing, perspective on the global economy, investing, gold, stocks and today's markets. Its been called "the most entertaining read of the day." More articles from The Daily Reckoning….
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