Gold World News Flash |
- Speculative Interests May have Shifted but Gold and Oil are Little Changed
- Crude Oil Inventories in Focus, Gold Holds Steady Despite Rallying Equities
- Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan
- Silver Stocks Offer Value
- Two of the Cheapest Stock Markets in the World
- The Overvalued Part of a Market Cycle
- Gold Testing 61.8% Retracement
- Happy Birthday Entitlements!
- Gold's Technicals Get Better!
- Wall Street Legend: This Market Just Flashed a Huge Warning Signal
- Euro-Zone Erodes... Abandon the Afghan Ship?
- Will Iran Be Attacked Before the Weekend?
- LGMR: Rising Gold Now No.1 Play for Hedge-Fund Giants, as Inflation Surprises
- Jim?s Mailbox
- Bill Gross: "Private Market Can't Work"
- Grandich Client Update – Crocodile Gold
- GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget: Harry S. Dent Jr. & Chris Waltzek
- US Prepares For Gold Standard
- Gold Buyers Push Through Concrete
- Silver Price : 1344-1988 (in 1998 Dollars)
- Gold the Antidote for Moral Hazard, Uncertainty and Cowardice
- China Drastically Cuts Treasuries By Record Amount, Nervous About U.S. Spending
- Whats Really Driving the Gold Price Now?
- The Miseducation of Ben Shalom Bernanke
- How Theta Can Be Utilized to Trade Gold
- Rising Gold Now No.1 Play for Hedge-Fund Giants…
- The Best Gold Interview of 2010
- Alexza Pharma Clears Hurdles Towards Approval for Agitation Drug
- Kinross Gold Corporation: A Takeover Too Far?
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Gain With Stocks and Oil
- Malaysian Province Moves To Gold And Silver-Based Currency In "Main Islamic Event Of The Last 100 Years"
- China doubles South Korean bond holdings as Asia switches from dollar
- Stealing Calories From the Future
- Will The Real Smart Money Please Stand Up?
- Saxo Bank Quarterly Outlook: "The Crisis Is Not Contained"
- Daily Credit Summary: August 17 - POMO you don't!
- What’s really driving the Gold Price Now?
- Microsoft & IBM: Potential Suitors for HP
- SP 500 September Futures, Gold Daily Chart, Silver's Ascending Triangle
| Speculative Interests May have Shifted but Gold and Oil are Little Changed Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT courtesy of DailyFX.com August 17, 2010 04:11 PM There was significant evidence that risk appetite had charged higher through the US session; but conviction would slacken without a clear fundamental driver. Through it all though, neither gold nor oil would threaten major moves. North American Commodity Update Commodities - Energy Energy Traders Little Encouraged by Event Risk, Follow Technicals to an Oil Bounce Crude Oil (LS Nymex) - $75.44 // $0.53 // 0.70% As fundamental traders, it is still important to keep a close eye on technical patterns. During periods that speculative drive has leveled out or fundamental matters are exceptionally light, the self-fulfilling quality of these price patterns can often have an outsized influence on price action. This is the situation that we were presented with in the oil market today. The US market would print its first bullish close in six days – bringing to an end the worst bear wave since the open of July. Tha...
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| Crude Oil Inventories in Focus, Gold Holds Steady Despite Rallying Equities Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT courtesy of DailyFX.com August 17, 2010 10:51 PM Crude oil will be taking note of the DOE inventory report on Wednesday, as the API survey showed extremely bearish stock movements. Gold seems to have resumed its long-term uptrend. Commodities – Energy Crude Oil Inventories in Focus Crude Oil (WTI) - $75.55 // -$0.22 // -0.29% Commentary: Crude oil rallied $0.53, or 0.70%, on Tuesday, breaking a five session losing streak. The advance, however, was quite tame relative to both last week’s decline and the 1.2% rally in equity markets. The oil market may be finally be acknowledging that fact that supply remains abundant, with inventories in the U.S. at 10-year highs. If the API survey is any indication, the DOE report tomorrow will show inventories continuing to surge counter-seasonally (API: Crude +5.86 million, Gasoline +2 million, Distillate +2 million). There have been reports by industry sources that floating storage has been drawing down rapidly,...
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| Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... August 17, 2010 10:02 AM Dear CIGAs, Click chart to enlarge today's hourly action in Gold in PDF format with commentary from Trader Dan Norcini ...
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| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT In our last editorial we showed a few charts of our junior gold and junior silver indices. Gold has moved well past its 2008 high and the same has happened with our junior gold index. Silver, at its recovery peak was within 7% off its 2008 high while our junior silver index was 25% off its 2008 high. While the junior silvers have recovered, they have lagged both the junior golds and Silver. This chart shows our junior silver index (black) and our index versus Silver (blue). The ratio fell from about 13.5 to 3.0 and now sits below 6.0. Much of the recovery in the junior silver stocks has come from the huge recovery in Silver rather than from a leveraged move in the shares. Is the market right about this? Are the silver stocks fairly valued here? Let’s take a look at some ratios, which can help explain the profitability of the silver stocks and answer those questions. In the following chart we show three things: Silver in Canadian Dollars, Base Metals prices...
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| Two of the Cheapest Stock Markets in the World Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT Every year, I go to the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver, both as speaker and attendee. It's jampacked with people from all over the world who gather at the Fairmont Hotel to share ideas. As soon as I walk into that grand old railway hotel, I know there will be some surprises. This year was no different. Ideas were not in short supply, but some ideas were more common than others. More than a few speakers spoke well of gold and oil. Most had dim views of the economy and the stock market. And there were at least a handful whose best ideas hailed from some emerging market. A couple of my favorite ideas came from investors based in Dubai and Moscow. Whole markets rarely go on sale, but here we have two examples of stock markets trading for about 6 times earnings. Peter Cooper is our man in Dubai, as you may remember, and a friend of mine. From his perch in Dubai, he writes an interesting investing newsletter called ArabianMoney. He is also a self-made millionaire who ma...
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| The Overvalued Part of a Market Cycle Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT I had just gotten home from arguing with the in-laws about how they were idiots for not buying gold instead of those stupid stocks and mutual funds, and their laughter was still ringing distastefully in my ears when Eric Fry here at The Daily Reckoning put up a chart of the P/E ratio of the S&P500 over the last 30 years since 1981. Interestingly, in 1981 the stock market was in a kind of a funk and the Price/Earnings ratio was hitting about 7, which is on the low side, whereupon (thanks to Congress authorizing tax-deferred retirement accounts in 1982) the stock market proceeded for the next 20 years or so, in fits and starts, to rise to, stunningly, a P/E ratio of almost 30 in 2000, whereupon it promptly turned over and has been falling, in fits and starts, for the last 10 years as the price of the S&P went down. Wow! What a ride! Of course, it has been an entire paragraph where I did not snarl at something, or heap Mogambo Disdain And Scorn (MDAS) on the despicable Alan Greenspan,...
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| Gold Testing 61.8% Retracement Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT courtesy of DailyFX.com August 17, 2010 06:48 AM 240 Minute Bars Prepared by Jamie Saettele Gold has topped. Please see the latest special report for details. Gold is making its way lower in an impulsive fashion. It seems as though the first 5 wave decline ended following a terminal thrust from a triangle. I do expect this rally from the low to prove corrective. Price has reached the 61.8% retracement – additional resistance would be the parallel channel....
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| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT The 5 min. Forecast August 17, 2010 11:05 AM by Addison Wiggin & Ian Mathias [LIST] [*] Terrified traders: Treasury yields at record lows after fabled “Hindenburg Omen” [*] Happy 75th Birthday, Social Security… government celebrates with useless partisan agendas [*] Chris Mayer on the hottest commodity in the world today: potash [*] Big moves in U.S. debt: China dumps at record rate while total foreign holdings exceed $4 trillion for first time [/LIST] We begin today with the latest panic on the floor of the exchange: “The Hindenburg Omen.” According to technical analysts, the Hindenburg Omen is a technical point of no return whereby five market events occur simultaneously and result in a rapid decline in stock prices. Here are the rules of the game, as outlined by Zero Hedge: 1 - The daily number of NYSE new 52-week highs and the daily number of new 52-week lows must both be greater than 2.2% of total NYSE issues traded that day. 2 - ...
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| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT Stewart Thomson email: [EMAIL="s2p3t4@sympatico.ca"]s2p3t4@sympatico.ca[/EMAIL] Aug 17, 2010 1. "This is not working, let's try something new." -approx. quotation from Deng Xiaoping, head of China, circa 1978. 2. Brilliant observation on Deng's part. Let's have a round of applause for Gman Deng. When you steal the entire wealth of your citizens for yourself, turn them into slaves, and murder millions of those who don't share your "enlightened new era vision," who prefer common sense instead of your Frankenstein Movie, yes, Deng, you need something new. Or maybe you shouldn't have tried to fix what wasn't broken by robbing and murdering millions. Just a "minor" observation on my part. 3. The past is the past, and Chinese corporations are moving forward, as is the Chinese Gman, (probably temporarily in the case of the Gman). Chinese citizens wonder if a day is coming where the goods in thei...
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| Wall Street Legend: This Market Just Flashed a Huge Warning Signal Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT By Tom Dyson Tuesday, August 17, 2010 David Rosenberg calls it the smoking gun… Rosenberg and I just spoke on the phone. You might not know his story, but David Rosenberg is a Wall Street legend. He is famous for being a bearish economist at the most bullish firm on Wall Street. When the housing market was in a roaring boom, Merrill Lynch was making billions. But Rosenberg, Merrill's chief economist, was warning about recession and a bear market in stocks. He said the housing and mortgage bubble would pop and a severe economic downturn would follow. Last year, he quit Merrill Lynch. Many people thought Merrill fired him for not being bullish enough. "That's nonsense," he told me. "My wife and three kids live in Toronto. I wanted to be with them. So I left New York." He's now Chief Economist at Gluskin Sheff, a boutique money-management firm in Canada. Of course, Rosenberg's bearish views were spectacularly right… Rosenberg is now one of the most po...
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| Euro-Zone Erodes... Abandon the Afghan Ship? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT Euro-Zone Erodes Tuesday, August 17, 2010 – by Staff Report The Debt Virus Spreads After Make-Believe Recovery ... Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments Ltd., discusses the outlook for European Central Bank monetary policy. Milligan speaks with Betty Liu from Edinburgh on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." ... The euro area is growing again. The banking system has survived its stress tests. The Greeks have implemented their first austerity measures with some success. The fevered predictions of the early summer that the euro was doomed, and that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis would rip through countries such as Spain and Portugal like a virus, have been forgotten. The crisis appears to be over. Don't believe it. Under the surface, the cracks in the euro are getting worse. The imbalances in the euro area are growing all the time. The resistance to the bailout package will rise as the terms turn out to be immoral and ...
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| Will Iran Be Attacked Before the Weekend? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT Gold was in positive territory through most of Far East trading on Monday morning... and took a bit of a pop to the upside during early London trading... and then another jump at the Comex open in New York. That was its high of the day. From that point it got sold off about five bucks and then traded sideways for the rest of the trading session. Yesterday's high... $1,228.60 spot... occurred shortly before 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. Volume was very light. Silver also spent most of Far East trading in the plus column... but the real action occurred moments after New York began trading at 8:15 a.m. Eastern time. For about twenty-five minutes, the silver graph looked like a NASA rocket launch... as silver tacked on a thirty-one cent gain. Then, either the buyer disappeared, or the price got capped, and silver [like gold] traded sideways for the rest of the day. Ted and I discussed the pros and cons of whether this was a new buyer... or one of the bullion...
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| LGMR: Rising Gold Now No.1 Play for Hedge-Fund Giants, as Inflation Surprises Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT London Gold Market Report from Adrian Ash BullionVault 08:50 ET, Tues 17 August Rising Gold Now No.1 Play for Hedge-Fund Giants, as Inflation "Surprises" UK Central Bank Chief THE PRICE OF GOLD touched a new 7-week high of $1228 per ounce on Tuesday morning in London, rising for US investors as world stock markets crept higher and the Dollar fell against both the Euro and Yen. Crude oil slipped towards a five-week low, but new data showed US factory-gate inflation jumping from 2.8% to 4.2% year-on-year last month. Bank of England governor Mervyn King was meantime forced to write an open letter to the UK chancellor, admitting that "the recent strength of inflation has surprised" his executive committee, now running above the government's official tolerance of 3.0% per year for 8 months running. The Pound gave back half of Monday's 1.5¢ gain on the news, slipping to $1.5610 and nudging the gold price in Sterling up to a new 1-month high above £786 an ounce....
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| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... August 17, 2010 08:41 AM Housing starts rise less than expected CIGA Eric The 2009, stimulus induced up trends have been clearly broken. Building Permits And Change YOY: Housing Starts And Change YOY: Housing starts rose but to a much weaker rate than expected in July, while permits for future home construction fell to their lowest level in more than a year, according to a government report on Tuesday that pointed to a weak housing market. Source: reuters.com More… Gold Shares: Follow the money and leverage CIGA Eric The gold shares, despite general fear and loathing from the community, have been leading the stock market higher. Expect the gold shares to remain the leaders as an ongoing external default through devaluation is the only politically expedient option. Gold Miners Index to S&P 500 Ratio: The 8/4 gap has been filled on a contraction volume. This is bullish setup. Gol...
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| Bill Gross: "Private Market Can't Work" Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT Market Ticker - Karl Denninger View original article August 17, 2010 06:30 AM Right now, from the housing hearing.... "Private market is unrealistic; government guarantees necessary." Oh really Bill? What's the real problem Bill? The real problem is that you have "invested" on a broken mantra. That house prices never go down. That down payments are unnecessary - that is, that leverage should be sky-high (infinite in the case of 100% financing.) Where government is required to guarantee the payment of principal and interest - for a private good, consumed by private people. Sounds like socialist, even Marxist claptrap, doesn't it? That's because it is! The underlying problem is that when you allow people to take leverage risk goes up. Leverage goes parabolic as down payments approach zero. 20% down payments have a market-proven ability to mitigate risk. They make risk manageable even if people default. Gross is also talking about "cou...
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| Grandich Client Update – Crocodile Gold Posted: 17 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here. Stay up to date on his model portfolio! August 17, 2010 05:17 AM Croc has start up pains but has potential for long term gains Crocodile Gold issued a press release announcing their Q2 2010 results and production results to date. First and foremost, Croc has produced 41,700 ounces of gold to the end of July. They declared commercial production as of June 1, 2010, and poured 8,697 ounces of gold during June and produced 8,200 ounces in July. Their cash costs were high in June at $1051 per ounce, but this included an inventory writedown of $77 per ounce and they just declared commercial production so these costs should decrease as the operations progress and monthly production increases. They discussed a number of things in the press release, but before getting into other details, of note is that Croc has reduced its 2010 production guidance from 100,000 ounces to 85,000 ounces bas...
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| GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget: Harry S. Dent Jr. & Chris Waltzek Posted: 17 Aug 2010 07:00 PM PDT GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget: Harry S. Dent Jr. & Chris Waltzek
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| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:04 PM PDT I have often written about the US Treasury and US Mint's very strange behavior when it comes to their part in continuing "business as usual" for the fiat monetary system. Although many have chalked up the Mint's rationing of Gold and Silver American Eagle coins to normal behavior of inept government employees and government bureaucracy, I have a much different take on the subject.
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| Gold Buyers Push Through Concrete Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:01 PM PDT
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| Silver Price : 1344-1988 (in 1998 Dollars) Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT
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| Gold the Antidote for Moral Hazard, Uncertainty and Cowardice Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:52 PM PDT
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| China Drastically Cuts Treasuries By Record Amount, Nervous About U.S. Spending Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:50 PM PDT China decreased their holdings in U.S. Treasuries by a record amount in a U.S. government report issued yesterday. Treasuries at the moment are experiencing a steep rise as the U.S. is financing its staggering debt level by offering its obligations to other countries. China has historically been the largest holder of U.S. debt as a means of promoting a strong dollar, but the unattractive yield along with reckless government spending seems to be causing the Chinese to rethink the risks and benefits of holding U.S. government bonds. On one hand, they need to make sure the U.S. currency does not devalue but on the other hand they need to protect themselves from a treasury bubble. There seems to be a major investment shift away from treasuries as the Chinese are skeptical of the U.S. debt situation. The Chinese are looking to make strategic investments in natural resources. China may not be public about their policy move, but they are taking significant steps to increase their position in mining and energy companies. In 2009 the Chinese Investment Corporation, a state owned company, took a large ownership position in Teck Cominco and Penn West Energy Trust. They are looking for mining stocks to diversify their holdings. This major policy shift from Asia transferring assets from U.S. debt to natural resources could spread. We could soon be seeing a top in U.S. Treasuries and more acquisitions for premiums in the junior mining sector. In fact, a couple of the companies I followed last year had major investments from Asia. As demand has exceeded supply, they have been compelled to import certain commodities such as uranium and molybdenum rather than their traditional role of being the exporter. Treasuries have made an enormous run, but the recent gap up and reversal could mean that it has exhausted its move and may be headed lower. This gap up and reversal, which made railroad track-like formations in the chart should be observed cautiously. High activity days with a jump in volume or price call for close monitoring. The manner in which price reacts to the gap is crucial. If we see a two-day reversal pattern after a gap up where it closes near the opening of the previous gap, it is a sign that buyers are doubting the previous day's jump.
Now the rally from April is 12.5 percent above the 200 day moving average. It has also reached its upper resistance line. As I indicated above, the buying from the Fed and overseas will abate and we may soon be at a juncture where treasuries have exhausted their move. There are negative divergences with momentum which price usually follows. China' s move to decrease their holdings may be starting a trend that could influence other countries as the scramble for basic commodities and hard assets continues. This commodity search should spread to U.S. mining companies, especially as the dollar and treasuries weaken. I expect an increase of acquisitions in U.S. gold, silver and base metal mining companies in the next few years.
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| Whats Really Driving the Gold Price Now? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:46 PM PDT
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| The Miseducation of Ben Shalom Bernanke Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:36 PM PDT
Since world leaders and economists continually display a lack of even the most rudimentary of understanding about the unsound nature of our monetary system, I’ve decided to write them a “Monetary Policy for Dummies” to help them understand why the policies and solutions they constantly advocate amount to legalized theft that destroys the wealth of the nations. For example, Dr. Ken Mayland, President of Clearview Economics, LLC, and previously the Chief Economist for First Pennsylvania Bank and KeyCorp, recently advocated a voluntary paycut of 10% for all Americans as his “solution” to the US unemployment problem. Here is his statement below:
"In that vein, let me put forth the ClearView Economics plan to get the nation quickly back to full employment. The current unemployment rate is 9.5%. That amounts to 14.6 million persons who want to work that cannot find jobs. But there is also serious underemployment. I don't accept the U-6 unemployment calculation as being fully representative of all the truly unemployed, but let's allow another 3% to account for all the underemployment. [sarcasm] how mighty noble of you, Dr. Mayland! [/sarcasm] That brings the total unemployed to 19.2 million persons…So here's the plan. EVERYBODY -- from the president down to the chambermaid -- takes a 10% cut in compensation! This freed-up compensation expense is then used to re-employ the 8% (12.3 million) of the unemployed. Net-net, the nation's compensation bill has remained unchanged, and the unemployment rate is now 4.5%! Voila!” That’s your solution, Dr. Mayland? I mean really? Dr. Mayland’s absurd contentions serve to reinforce my contention that Ivy League educations are nothing more than hype, the greatest intrinsic value of which is presented from networking opportunities versus the actual knowledge, or lack thereof, gained through attendance (Dr. Mayland graduated from MIT and earned his PhD from my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania). To begin, instead of using an arbitrary 3% to produce a false 12.5% U-6 unemployment rate, why not use a credible source like Shadowstats’s U-6 unemployment rate of nearly 17%? Better yet, why not include the faction of unemployed long-term discouraged workers, since for all intents and purposes, they are unemployed, and use an all inclusive unemployment & underemployment rate of nearly 22%? Maybe if Dr. Mayland started with real unemployment statistics, he could have formulated a viable solution that does not involve the deployment of a financial weapon of mass destruction against a nation’s citizens.
As evidenced by the latest adjusted monetary base chart from the St. Louis Feds above, the Fed’s have created a parabolic spike in monetary base during the last couple of years as part of their “solution” to our current global monetary crisis. Though this explosion in monetary base has not yet translated into an explosion in the monetary supply, eventually, the massive spike in monetary base we see above will yield massive spikes in monetary supply. Why do I believe this? It is only a matter of time before American banks will be forced to seek the multiplier effect of the fractional reserve banking system as their solution to counter the enormous losses that they currently are hiding in their marked-to-fantasy commercial and residential RE portfolio values, courtesy of a paid and bought-off Financial Accounting Standards Board. This is not a matter of if, but when. Lying about asset valuations can delay bankruptcy but it is an impossible solution to insolvency. The big banks WILL have to substantially expand the monetary supply and create a massive supply of new loans using the principles of fractional reserve banking in an attempt to generate revenue that can offset the enormous REAL losses that they are currently concealing in their RE portfolios. View the Max Keiser, Bill Black interview below for a brief synopsis of the real trouble America’s largest banks really face today despite the "all is well" appearance they have manufactured through rigged earnings statements and ongoing multi-million executive bonus payouts.
Today, inflationary and deflationary forces exist in the US economy and have collided in the worst possible mixture for American citizens. Deflationary housing markets have reduced the equity Americans can pull out of our homes in our greatest time of struggle and financial need while inflationary food and energy prices consume greater and greater portions of our monthly income every month. Even though the US Central Bank’s current open market operations and their concurrent stock market ramp up (which has been well documented here on Zero Hedge) will likely cause a short-term US (and European) stock market rally, the eventual result of artificial stock-market ramping that belies free market fundamentals will be a stock market crash. And when the next stock market crashes strike, those invested in stock markets will lose another considerable chunk of their wealth - AGAIN.
It is a myth that inflation cannot exist in a capital sector that is experiencing deflation. Enormously distorted market prices and obscene market inefficiencies occur when Central Banks encourage malinvestment by enforcing abnormally long periods of artificially low interest rate periods. When these distorted market prices return to prices more indicative of a free market, economists state that deflation is occurring. If the US housing market rose 60% above where a free market would have set prices due to Central Bank monetary policies and then plunges 30%, everyone assumes that there are zero inflationary forces at work within the housing markets. This is not necessarily true. Central Banks can still employ inflationary monetary forces and deflation can still come out on top. For example, if the US dollar is inflated by 10% in a year when housing prices plunge 30%, the 30% is the net effect of the 10% inflation in US dollars and the 40% deflation in housing prices. Central Banking monetary policies inflict simultaneous inflation and deflation at times in the economy that work hand in hand with one another to destroy as much wealth of a nation’s citizens as possible. And this is what makes Dr. Mayland’s proposed “solution particularly malicious. The NET effect of inflationary/deflationary forces are inflationary in some sectors while deflationary in others, but wealth-destroying across ALL sectors. When inflationary forces spread to more and more sectors of consumption, as it eventually will when bankers’ self-preservation instincts trigger lending in earnest, the standard of living for every American will be cut even more as a devaluing dollar will decrease its purchasing power. So Dr. Mayland’s solution to cut everyone’s salaries by10% will lead to a much higher cut in REAL purchasing power and cause every American to struggle at a greater rate just to survive. I wonder if Spanish citizens will latch on to Dr. Mayland’s solution to their massive unemployment problem and take a voluntary, self-inflicted 15% paycut? The only result Dr. Mayland may foster with his unemployment “solution” is the start of the next revolution.
But such citizen threatening moves aren’t relegated to American bankers. In Japan, Prime Minister Naota Kan stated that he is meeting with the Bank of Japan this week to consider a greater expansion of the Yen monetary supply because a strong yen and poor stock market performance has threatened to “derail the economic turnaround.” Is it not just a tad counterintuitive that a strong currency would be “bad” for the economy? It’s counterintuitive because it is not true. Mr. Kan, like Dr. Mayland, seems to be unable to recognize that a weak, devaluing yen is terrible for all Japanese citizens. Any short-term benefits of an economic stimulus created merely by shoving trillions of a currency down the economy’s throat are more than negated by the concurrent destruction of a nation’s wealth that results from such an approach. Sure, Japanese exporters that do not understand monetary valuations may believe that devaluing the Yen by 5% is of benefit to them because, perhaps at current levels, their exports may drop by 4%. And the Japanese government will eventually have to consider the conundrum of having their imports slapped with restrictive tariffs by foreign governments that desire to protect their domestic industries from being overrun by a flood of cheap Japanese imports. But this is exactly what stupid monetary policies that uphold the use of unsound, “fake” money achieves – a game of financial Russian roulette among sovereign nations in which every nation is afraid of pulling the trigger that may yield the bullet that will kill their economy. And that bullet, quite ironically, is a stronger currency (relative to the weaker currencies of other large economies).
However, the silver bullet that can kill the entire game of financial Russian roulette is the implementation of sound money that is sound because it is backed not by the empty worthless promises of bankers and governments, but by precious metals with real intrinsic value. Given that Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama resigned little more than two months ago, and his replacement, Naota Kan immediately issues a statement about the necessity of maintaining a weak Yen, one thing in the financial landscape remains crystal clear. Though the faces of political leadership may change in Japan, Australia, the United States and the UK, their masters and loyalties remain to the bankers and not the people. Any American that still continues to believe that Obama has served his or her fiscal interests to a higher degree than his predecessors George W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton or George Bush Sr. should seek immediately be remanded to a class in Austrian economics not only for his or her immediate enlightenment but as an antidote to the path of financial suicide to which he or she remains committed.
In closing, it is clear that despite the lack of understanding of our global monetary system by our leaders, Central Bankers remain crystal clear about the end game of their quantitative easing programs. Just 24 hours after a Malaysian state announced that they would accept Islamic gold dinars and silver dirhams as an alternate currency for business transactions and the initial sale of USD $630,000 of these coins on August 12, 2010, the Malaysian Central Bank declared the use of these very gold and silver coins as illegal. Turns out that even Malaysian Central Bankers are students of Alan Greenspan’s writings and realized the validity in his following statement: “In the absence of a gold standard, there is no way [for the public] to protect [its] savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal.” Local Malaysian governments figured out a way to enable the public to protect its savings through the issuance of gold and silver coins. Enter the Malaysian Central Bank and its declaration that gold and silver coins are illegal forms of currency in order to protect its, and not the people's, interests. Wash, rinse, repeat. Watch the world’s wealth sink into oblivion, leaving wealth-destroying monetary policies unopposed for decades into the future thanks to the miseducation of Dr. Mayland and men of his ilk.
About the author: JS Kim is the Chief Investment Strategist and Managing Director for SmartKnowledgeU, a fiercely independent investment research & wealth consulting firm that seeks to help citizens build wealth by helping them understand, and therefore protect themselves against, the destructive monetary policies of bankers and governments.
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| How Theta Can Be Utilized to Trade Gold Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:33 PM PDT
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| Rising Gold Now No.1 Play for Hedge-Fund Giants… Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:29 PM PDT
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| The Best Gold Interview of 2010 Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:26 PM PDT Much of what passes for "insider" information these days is often conspiracy-edged or largely conjecture. True inside information is actually hard to come by. So what follows is the refreshingly candid and uncut version of my talk with a first-hand participant in the murky and little-understood world of gold bullion, mints, and bullion dealers. Customarily, when considering a company for a potential recommendation, I hold a series of discussions with management. It was during one of these vetting procedures that I spoke with Andy Schectman of Miles Franklin – and heard some disturbing reports about supply that every investor should know. Andy is a bullion seller, so you're welcome to take his comments with a grain of salt. On the other hand, what he sees week after week and what he hears from his high-level industry contacts might just make you pull back on that salt shaker and re-inventory the number of ounces you own... Jeff Clark: Andy, tell us about the kinds of contacts you have in the industry and where you get your information. Andy: I'm associated with two of the six primary mint distributors in the United States. There are only six primary precious metal distributors here because the qualifications are very difficult to meet. Aside from having $100 million in annual sales, you have to extend a $50 million line of credit to the U.S. Mint, and very few companies can do that. So in working with these companies, I'm privy to information that many others aren't. 
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| Alexza Pharma Clears Hurdles Towards Approval for Agitation Drug Posted: 17 Aug 2010 05:18 PM PDT Sheff Station submits: October has been called the Super Bowl or World Cup of biotech approvals in the investing world. Whatever you want to call it, investors will be watching closely as many companies will have their drugs reviewed by the FDA for approval. This is often-times a turning point in a small biotech company's history in regards to whether or not they get approved or denied. In a previous article I focused on the recent financing and how that will fuel the future growth of Alexza Pharmaceuticals (ALXA). This piece will focus on key findings from a recent conference call that makes a strong case for the growth of Alexa heading into their Oct 11th PDUFA date for AZ-004 (Staccato Loxapine). There are often many questions that can come up prior to an approval date regarding efficacy or safety. These questions are most often addressed by an Advisory Panel of the FDA. An advisory panel is becoming more common for companies as these are often required before they await approval from the FDA. The advisory panel usually addresses potential issues regarding safety or efficacy. There have already been at least a half dozen companies before the end of 2010 that have gone before or will have their product undergo the scrutiny of an advisory panel prior to the FDA for approval of their drug or device. Vivus (VVUS) went before an FDA panel on July 15th for their drug Qnexa for obesity and it was voted 10-6 not approvable. Mela (MELA) had their advisory panel meeting rescheduled after it was originally scheduled for August 26th for their medical device for melanoma called the MELAFIND. The FDA had pushed the MELA meeting back to November as they needed time to assemble their advisory panel. Questcor (QCOR) was notified on June 11th that they had 2 months to prepare for an FDA meeting for Sept 11th where the FDA would decide on their drug, Athcar, for the treatment of infantile spasms. This FDA meeting was pushed back because the FDA stated they needed more time to review information regarding labeling and potential post-approval commitments that they solicited from Questcor. This is also after the May 6th Advisory Committee to the Division of Peripheral & Central Nervous System Drugs of the FDA voted in support of Athcar for approval. Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) has an Advisory Panel Meeting for September 16th to discuss Locaserin for the treatment of obesity and their PDUFA date is Oct 22nd. Jazz (JAZZ) has an advisory committee meeting scheduled with the FDA on August 20th to discuss their drug Xyrem in fibromyalgia. Their scheduled PDUFA date is Oct. 11th. What does this Oct 11th date have to do with Alexza Pharmaceuticals? The importance is that date is the PDUFA date for Alexa's AZ-004 (Staccato Loxapine) where they will seek an indication for the rapid treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Complete Story »
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| Kinross Gold Corporation: A Takeover Too Far? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 04:31 PM PDT The acquisitive nature of Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) has taken it to the door step of Red Back Mining Incorporated (RBI) which appears to be a very good acquisition in terms of providing a pipeline of mining opportunities for Kinross. Read More...
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| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Gain With Stocks and Oil Posted: 17 Aug 2010 04:00 PM PDT Gold rose to as high as $1228.70 in London before it fell back off a bit in New York, but it still ended with a gain of 0.18%. Silver climbed to as high as $18.603 by late morning in New York before it dropped off some in the last couple of hours of trade, but it still ended with a gain of 0.87%.
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| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:36 PM PDT
More world governments are "just saying no" to the ponzi. Last week, the Malaysian government of Kelantan "said it was introducing a new monetary system featuring standardised gold and silver coins based on the traditional dinar and dirham coins once used by the Ottoman Empire." And as everyone who has taken game theory 101 knows, the first defector wins the most, while the last one is left with nothing. A small province in Malaysia just made the critical first defection. The question now is who will be next... and next...and next. The FT reports:
While having prior experience with Sharia-compliant debt issuance, Zero Hedge staff was unaware that it is against Islamic beliefs to endlessly dilute linen "money" in the way every central bank is doing now. One learns something new every day.
This whole Sharia situation is troublesome: if the Islamic world, in retaliation for a possible Iran invasion or otherwise, decides to issue a fatwa against the usage of non-Sharia compliant forms of monetary exchange, watch what happens as the developed world wilts overnight. With the bulk of world commodity extraction arising from the Muslim crescent, and wholesale ban on using USD and EUR, a move already underway in Iran, would make for the second coming of von Havenstein very, very difficult. Yet the Kelantan move may have some stumbling blocks prior to full implementation:
And for those who think that the move is a regional hoax that is not being taken seriously by anyone, the Malaysian National News Agency Bernama notes that the repercussions of the "move to gold-standard" decision has reached the very top:
Unlike the US, where the Coinage Act of 1965 gives citizens the right to use refuse the usage of cash in transactions (and thus opt in for a different form of currency), Malaysia is not quite as liberal:
If there is one thing we are sure about, is that any time the government steps in before a decision that has been taken by a clear majority, with the purpose of making life easier, the outcome is usually lethal, especially in volatile Islamic countries. Whether the transition from paper to a hard-backed currency will be the first spark in social upheavals as government slowly realize all their printer-induced leverage is slipping away, is still unknown. What is, however, is that many more will soon follow Kelantan's lead to abolish an endlessly dilutable thought experiment, which has no intrinsic value, and whose purchasing power is decimated by the minute, as hundreds of billions in new money are printed every month by the world's central banks. Yet perhaps, this is precisely the example that is needed for the world to realize that someone is actually willing to do more than just talk pointlessly about the transition to a gold standard, and actually is willing to risk enough by following through with it. What happens next is Ben Bernanke's worst nightmare.
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| China doubles South Korean bond holdings as Asia switches from dollar Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:35 PM PDT By Francis Yoon http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-18/china-doubles-korean-bond-holdi... SEOUL, South Korea -- China more than doubled South Korean debt holdings this year, spurring the notes' longest rally in more than three years, as policy makers shifted part of the world's largest foreign-exchange reserves out of dollars. Korean Treasury bonds held by Chinese investors rose 111 percent to 3.99 trillion won ($3.4 billion) in the first half of the year, data from the Seoul-based Financial Supervisory Service show. China should allocate some reserves to "financial assets in major Asian economies," Ding Zhijie, a former adviser to China's sovereign wealth fund, said in an Aug. 16 interview. "The significance of both the dollar and euro has declined because of the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis, while the role of some emerging-market currencies rose," said Ding, dean of finance at Beijing's University of International Business and Economics. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy to Become Coal Producer This Year Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX.V: PCY) announced on May 11 that it has entered into a mine services agreement with Leighton Asia Ltd. to begin coal production this year. Production will begin with a 250,000-tonne starter pit as planned in August, with production advancing to 2 million tonnes per year in 2011. Prophecy is fully funded to production and its management team includes John Morganti, Arnold Armstrong, and Rob McEwen. For Prophecy's complete press release about its production plans, please visit: http://www.prophecyresource.com/news_2010_may11.php China's holdings of Treasuries fell 6 percent in the first half to $843.7 billion, Department of Treasury data released this week show, making it harder for President Barack Obama to finance record debt sales to sustain the U.S. economic expansion. Societe Generale SA predicts Chinese KTB purchases, which accounted for 19 percent of foreign inflows in the first half compared with 10 percent last year, will spur further gains. "At this rate China may buy about 4 trillion won of KTBs by year-end, and that's a big deal," said Christian Carrillo, the Tokyo-based head of fixed-income strategy at SocGen, France's second-biggest bank. "That will be bullish for the market. It'll create a severe demand-supply imbalance in the KTBs, pushing yields to fall even more aggressively." China's holdings of South Korean notes account for little more than 0.1 percent of its $2.45 trillion reserves. The increase in the first six months compares with $20.1 billion pumped into Japanese debt. KTBs have handed investors a 5.6 percent return this year in dollar terms, delivering a profit every month, according to an index compiled by HSBC Holdings Plc. The advance marks the best winning streak since March 2007. U.S. Treasuries have gained 7.9 percent, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Treasury Master Index. Diversification should be the "basic principle" of reserve management, Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the People's Bank of China, said in an interview this month. Allocations to dollars in official reserves fell in the first three months, to 61.5 percent from 62.2 percent in the final quarter of 2009, the International Monetary Fund said June 30. The value of KTBs owned by China totaled 1.87 trillion won on Dec. 31, up from 79.6 billion at the end of 2008, FSS data show. Foreigners' total holdings increased by 18.6 trillion won in 2009 and climbed 11.3 trillion to 67.8 trillion in the first half. That's equivalent to 6.3 percent of South Korea's outstanding government debt. "The number of long-term investors who view Korean bonds as a new safe haven has increased," Kim Jung Kwan, director of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance's government bond policy division, said in an interview last month. "Korean bonds are attractive in yields and liquidity, as well as for diversification purposes." South Korea's benchmark three-year bonds yielded 3.76 percent as of 12:10 p.m. in Seoul, near a two-month low of 3.75 percent, while the rate on similar-maturity U.S. debt was 0.77 percent. Dollar-denominated returns may be boosted by gains in the won, which will strengthen 3 percent to 1,140 versus the greenback by the end of the year, according to the median estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. "Higher yields offered by KTBs and potential won appreciation would offer an attractive alternative to U.S. Treasuries for China," said Matthew Huang, a Singapore-based fixed-income analyst at Barclays Capital Plc. "Their total holdings are a drop in the pond relative to their total reserves." Join GATA here: Toronto Resource Investment Conference The Silver Summit New Orleans Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon: * * * Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Sona Resources Expects Positive Cash Flow from Blackdome, On May 18, 2010, Sona Resources Corp. (TSXV: SYS, Frankfurt: QS7) announced the release of a preliminary economic assessment for gold production at its flagship Blackdome and Elizabeth properties in British Columbia. Sona Executive Chairman Nick Ferris says: "We view this as a baseline scenario for gold production. The project is highly sensitive to the price of gold. A conservative valuation of gold at $1,093 per ounce would result in a pre-tax cash flow of $54 million. The assessment indicates that underground mining at the two sites would recover 183,600 ounces of gold and 62,500 ounces of silver. Permitting and infrastructure are already in place for processing ore at the Blackdome mill, with a 200-tonne per day throughput over an eight-year mine life. Our near-term goal is to continue aggressive exploration at Elizabeth and develop a million-plus-ounce gold resource, commencing production in 2013." For complete information on Sona Resources Corp. please visit: www.SonaResources.com A Canadian gold opportunity ready for growth
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| Stealing Calories From the Future Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:34 PM PDT Hmm. Let's see. Last time BHP Billiton made a tilt at a high-profile, big money acquisition, the whole world went pear-shaped. As the statisticians say, correlation is not causation. But M&A activity seems to pick up when company directors have run out of other ways to increase earnings. It does not always work out well for shareholders. Case in point, BHP's shares are down today by 3.5%. In case you missed it, Marius Klopper's outfit made a $43 billion bid for Canadian firm Potash. The bid values the world's largest fertiliser producer at $130 per share. That's a 16% premium to Monday's closing price. It's also nowhere close to what Potash thinks it's actually worth. Potash CEO Bill Doyle told Bloomberg that the bid was a, "highly opportunistic and an ill-disguised attempt to exploit an anomaly in the equity market valuation of Potash Corp." Tell us what you really think Bill. Analysts say a bid north of $150 per share more accurately values the company. As pick-up lines go, you'd have to say BHP's first attempt - what's a nice Canadian fertiliser company like you doing in the blue light district of the share market - was a failure. So the bid has gone hostile with BHP set to appeal directly to Potash shareholders. They say every man has his price, don't they (whomever they are)? There are two interesting parts to this news - aside from the valuation mating dance. The first is the timing. This would be the biggest merger since 2009, when Merck went after Schering Plough. Mergers don't always come at market tops. But there does seem to be a few cases of CEOs riding high on confidence prior to making an acquisition that destroys shareholder value (AOL-Time Warner). And don't forget the proposed BHP-Rio Tinto stitch up became public at the apex of commodity prices. The second interesting part to this news - which hits us especially hard right before lunch - is that it's about food. Potash is used to increase crop yields. It's the potassium that does it. Incidentally, potassium has the chemical symbol "K" on the periodic table which comes from the Latin "Kalium" which itself apparently comes from the Arabic "al-kali," or plant ashes. But back to hungry people. There are more of them. The chart below shows how quickly the world's population has grown since crop yields started increasing via mechanised farming, the green revolution, and petroleum-based fertilisers. The world's population has doubled in roughly 50 years.  A lot of those people are in this part of the world, the Eastern hemisphere. They are all just as hungry as people in the West, you would presume. And if you'll indulge us for a second there's an intriguing point to be made here: inflation increased calories consumed per day. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. If the creation of money out of thin air, not backed by anything, accelerates the use of land, labour and capital, why would food be any different. If you bring forward housing demand, say, by making grants and keeping credit cheap, aren't you "bringing forward" people with cheap money and cheap energy? And aren't you accelerating the depletion of arable land by increasing the demands upon it because of the "brought forward" population? This reveals the central and egregious blunder of the Keynesians. You enjoy the short-term gain without thinking of the long-term pain. Any kind of artificial stimulus that makes things appear easier now usually makes things worse later. You rob from future demand and you usually accelerate the misallocation of capital (giving everyone $900 to spend in a country with one of the highest household-debt-to-disposable-income ratios in the world). Inflation stimulates an unhealthy appetite. It makes you fat - right before it starves you. By the way, one reader asked us to show China's population pyramid. As you know, China is the source of so many projections about future Aussie corporate profits, jobs, and government taxes. Have a look then.  Whaddya reckon? It's not a big fat base. In fact, it reminds of a warning we heard about China a few years ago: China will grow old before it grows rich. But even though the base - in comparison to the middle - is narrower - the total numbers are incredibly large. It will be intriguing to see how it pays out. Will China's numerically large middle class be able to foot the bill for the health-care needs of ageing population? Or will the one-child policy become a no-grandparent policy? One thing to remember about China: it's 5,000 year old civilisation currently being "run" by an ideology with a very short and bad track record for economic management. We reckon old traditions, like caring for and respecting your elders, will win out over putting a bullet in their head to save on health-care costs. But modern fascism and nationalism are pathogens infecting the human spirit. This is probably true of most politics these days. Once they take hold in the mind and the heart, they have a way of making people do (and justify) idiotic and often monstrous things. This is why the modern Warfare/Welfare state is dis-integrating before our very eyes. It's running out of resources to consume in an unproductive way. It's inefficient in redistributing the productivity of the private sector. And at its black heart is infected my envy, sloth, malice, and a lust for power. So unhealthy. Do we exaggerate? Not by much, if it all. Elections always demoralise us. Thank goodness we can get back to being upbeat next week. And tomorrow, we'd like to tell you about the real spirit of enterprise. We'll also reveal an astonishing secret. Until then! Similar Posts:
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| Will The Real Smart Money Please Stand Up? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:34 PM PDT
Peter Cohan of DailyFinance asks, Hedge Funds Bet on Inflation, Institutions Bet on Deflation. Who's Right?:
#000000; text-decoration: none; border: medium none; text-align: left; overflow: hidden; background-color: transparent;">It does strike me as odd that institutions keep piling into corporate bonds, but fears of deflation persist and with so much cash at hand, default risk has fallen dramatically. One thing I don't like is how the article is slanted towards "hedge funds betting on inflation". Sure, some top hedge funds have increased their holdings SPDR Gold shares, but others have been busy buying many other sectors. I spent my day going over what the top hedge funds have been buying and selling. I pay attention to major increases in positions, and it's definitely not all about gold. As I stated in my last comment, hedge funds tend to buy and sell often in a quarter, but they do hold core positions. James Altucher reports in the WSJ, What Funds That Bought POT Are Also Buying:
Unlike pension fund managers, hedge fund managers have skin in the game. They're compensated on a 2% management fee and 20% performance fee and they are subject to a high water mark so if they lose big in a year, they have to recoup those losses before charging performance fees again. Most hedge funds deliver leveraged beta, but the top hedge funds are worth tracking. They're typically (but not always) way ahead of the retail and institutional funds. So when the WSJ reports that some big hedge funds have taken a liking to mortgage insurers in recent months, you should pay attention and ask yourself why. Other big funds are paring back on stocks. Reuters reports that Harbinger's Falcone trims stock holdings: Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone slimmed his stock portfolio by eliminating at least a dozen names and dramatically paring his top holding, a new regulatory filing shows. The New York-based hedge fund manager, who is staking his reputation on a big bet that he can build a high-speed wireless network, eliminated stocks like Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O). and Mercer International (MERC.O) in his Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I. Falcone also pared back Citigroup (C.N), which had been his biggest holding with 70 million shares in the first quarter, and cut telecommunications company Sprint Nextel (S.N). At the end of the second quarter, the filing shows that he owned only 35 million shares of Citi, which has been remaking itself since being rescued with $45 billion in government bailout money. He also reduced his stake in Sprint to 35 million shares from 49.6 million shares. During the quarter, Falcone owned 16 million shares of Palm Inc, having first announced his purchase days before computer maker HP agreed to buy the personal digital assistant manufacturer. Falcone, whose strong returns last year helped earn him a spot as one of the industry's best-paid managers, also added 25.8 million shares of Spectrum Brands (SPB.N), known for selling everything from pet care products to small appliances like the George Foreman grill. Recently he pledged 12.9 million of those shares as collateral for a $400 million loan he raised with the help of UBS. Cameron International (CAM.N), a manufacturer of oil and gas pressure control equipment, including valves, wellheads, controls, chokes, blowout preventers, also appeared in Falcone's portfolio with 7 million shares. Many other hedge fund managers made bets on energy companies whose shares had been depressed after BP's (BP.L) Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Falcone has been one of the hedge fund industry's most closely watched managers since a savvy bet in 2007 that the U.S. housing market would collapse and that mining companies would gain, earned his investors a 116 percent return. Since then, he has seen some ups and downs. His flagship fund was off roughly 10 percent through the middle of July of this year after having gained 46 percent in 2009. In 2008 he posted a 22 percent loss. Money managers like Falcone who invest more than $100 million are required to file form 13-F within 45 days after the end of each quarter. The forms include only U.S.-listed equity securities and related derivatives. Bonds, other securities and short positions are typically not disclosed. Managers may also leave off U.S.-listed equities they own under certain circumstances or file some holdings on confidential filings. For instance, in the case of Falcone, much of his funds' more than $2 billion investment in a wireless telecom company called LightSquared is not reflected in 13-F filings. Finally, Mr. Falcone isn't the only one pairing down stocks. Zero Hedge posted an excellent interview with hedge fund manager Kyle Bass who was quoted as saying "I don't know how I can be long stocks". You may recall Mr. Bass was quoted back in February in a Forbes article on The Global Debt Bomb:
So is Kyle Bass right? I think he's wrong on stocks, as top hedge funds and banks' prop desks continue to bid up risk assets, but he may be right on Japan, and his views on pensions are definitely worth listening to (watch both parts of interview below). But before you actively short JGBs or the yen, remember Mr. Keynes' famous quote: "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent". I've seen many "star" hedge fund managers succumb to the market because they were absolutely convinced they were right and the market was wrong. Unfortunately, no matter how "smart" the money is, the market always dictates the terms of the trade. Part 1: Part 2:
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| Saxo Bank Quarterly Outlook: "The Crisis Is Not Contained" Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:44 PM PDT
The Crisis Is Not Contained, by Saxo Bank
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| Daily Credit Summary: August 17 - POMO you don't! Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:39 PM PDT
Commentary courtesy of www.creditresearch.com
Spreads were tighter in the US as all the indices improved. IG trades 5.2bps tight (rich) to its 50d moving average, which is a Z-Score of -0.6s.d.. At 107bps, IG has closed tighter on 154 days in the last 419 trading days (JAN09). The last five days have seen IG flat to its 50d moving average. HY trades 45.1bps wide (cheap) to its 50d moving average, which is a Z-Score of -0.7s.d. and at 563.1bps, HY has closed tighter on 91 days in the last 419 trading days (JAN09). The biggest absolute movers in IG were Nordstrom Inc. (+2.25bps), Altria Group Inc (+2bps), and Lowe`s Companies, Inc. (+1.5bps) in the underperformers, and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (-15bps), SLM Corp (-12.48bps), and Hartford Financial Services Group (-12bps) in the outperformers. The biggest percentage movers in IG were Honeywell International Inc (+2.35%), Lowe`s Companies, Inc. (+1.95%), and Nordstrom Inc. (+1.78%) in the underperformers, and ConocoPhillips (-7.48%), Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (-5.28%), and Dominion Resources, Inc. (-5.1%) in the outperformers.
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| What’s really driving the Gold Price Now? Posted: 17 Aug 2010 01:00 PM PDT At the moment, it appears that the gold price is being linked to the state of the global economic growth or lack thereof. Is it? Or are there other factors that contribute to the rise in the demand for gold? A look at the different types of demand gives us perspective on the real influences on the gold price.
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| Microsoft & IBM: Potential Suitors for HP Posted: 17 Aug 2010 12:48 PM PDT
By Dian L. Chu, Economic Forecasts & Opinions
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| SP 500 September Futures, Gold Daily Chart, Silver's Ascending Triangle Posted: 17 Aug 2010 12:30 PM PDT |
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