Archive for the 'Economy' Category
China’s Quake Aftershock: 5 Million Homeless
June 10th, 2008The scale of this disaster is very difficult to contemplate. Via: MSNBC: At the relief operations center in China’s mountainous Qingchuan county, government workers are still in emergency mode nearly a month after the devastating May 12 earthquake. Powerful aftershocks, heavy rains and dangerous “quake lakes” keep them from devoting all their attention to their […]
Shanghai’s Composite Index Declines 7.7%
June 10th, 2008Via: CNN: Asian markets suffered major losses Tuesday, led down by Shanghai and Hong Kong, where banking and property shares fronted declines. Investors fretted about the impact of the latest round of anti-inflation measures announced over the weekend. Shanghai’s Composite Index plunged 7.7% to 3,072.33, its lowest closing level since March 22. Tuesday’s trading was […]
Britain: Traders Predict House Prices Will Fall by 50% in Four Years
June 10th, 2008Via: Guardian: The slide in house prices will continue for at least three years and crush the value of a home by almost 50% in real terms, according to a key index of property price futures. Indications from futures trading on long term property prices shows that the average UK home will recover its current […]
Oil, Dollar Form Record Negative Correlation
June 9th, 2008Mmm hmm. Via: Bloomberg: When leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized countries meet June 13-14 in Japan, they may look to the joint actions taken ahead of a similar event in 2000, when oil prices were surging and a major currency was at a record low. On Sept. 22, 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton […]
New York Fed Chief Urges Global Bank Framework
June 9th, 2008Why now? Below is a screen shot of Total Borrowings of Depository Institutions from the Federal Reserve: So, what happens after the banks default on the loans that they’ve taken out from the Federal Reserve (that unprecedented, nearly vertical blue line on the chart above)? Ah, yes. The phrase, Global Bank Framework might make a […]
Oil: The Event
June 7th, 2008WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. Before I begin, I want to emphasize that this market is for experts only. Unless you trade for a living, I wouldn’t go near this either way. Oil has formed a bullish engulfing candle formation on the weekly chart. It has […]
OIL SURGES $11 to RECORD $138
June 7th, 2008This was an insane move. I’ll have some charts up next post. Earlier, I wrote, “Gold, oil and the U.S. Dollar Index are all rangebound slop now. Know that your indicators contain more noise here.” That was midway through the session. With this weekly candle in, the picture is substantially different now. We’ll look at […]
China Buying Time at $2.49 Per Gallon
June 6th, 2008In short: The Chinese government is massively subsidizing gasoline prices. Via: Forbes: Beijing is holding down many prices–including oil–with a cumbersome price-control scheme. Consider the following: Since January 2007, global crude oil prices have risen by 109%; gasoline prices in the U.S. have risen by 77% (roughly apace); gasoline prices in China have risen only […]
U.S. Unemployment Up Sharply
June 6th, 2008It’s pointless to post government unemployment statistics, but even by their bogus numbers, it’s the biggest rise in more than two decades. Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. lost jobs in May for a fifth month and the unemployment rate rose by the most in more than two decades, signaling that the world’s largest economy is stalling. […]
MBIA, Ambac, $1 Trillion of Debt, Downgraded
June 6th, 2008Via: Bloomberg: MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc., the world’s largest bond insurers, had their AAA financial strength rankings cut by Standard & Poor’s, taking with them the ratings on more than $1 trillion of securities they guaranteed. The ratings were lowered two levels to AA, New York-based S&P said in a statement today. […]
