It has been 65 years since Europe’s last major war. Still, when Germany gets up off its knees, the continent trembles. Last week, the Berlin government announced the best results since the wall fell in ’89. From the first quarter to the second one the republic’s GDP rose 2.2%. At that rate – about 9% [...]
Front and center this morning, I have to tell you that we’ve had a HUGE currency rally overnight, and the rally still has legs through the European session, for I saw the euro (EUR) inch higher as I booted up my computer! What’s got the currencies, led by the Big Dog euro, so wound up [...]
Moody’s announced overnight that they were downgrading Portugal’s debt rating by two levels to A1… I don’t want to get started on these ratings agencies again; they have become as useless as a pay toilet in a diarrhea ward! OK… That probably wasn’t too good, to start off today’s letter with a saying like that, [...]
Front and center this morning, gold is retreating again today and has fallen well below $1,200… Here’s the skinny… Yesterday, it was announced that China’s Agricultural Bank of China reported a very successful public offering, raising more than $22 billion. Now, what does this have to do with a gold sell-off, I hear you saying? [...]
You’d be amazed by how many subjects appear to operate in cycles. From new membership rates of the Presbyterian Church to the population of Illinois chinch bugs, from heart disease in the northeastern U.S. to grasshopper plagues, from cheese consumption to wheat acres harvested. Then there’s brain waves, marriage rates, Atlantic salmon populations, aluminum production, [...]
Yesterday’s price action in the currencies versus the dollar was a drag, man… We did, however, see the higher yielding currencies begin to move away from the pack of currencies led by the euro (EUR). That move higher by the likes of Australia (AUD), Brazil (BRL), South Africa (ZAR), and others, carried over through the [...]
Front and center this morning, we saw the risk aversion that held a tight grip on the currencies and commodities for about a week, fade a bit as the day went on yesterday, and the dollar selling has carried through the overnight and morning sessions overseas. “What caused this turnaround?” I hear you asking… Ahhh [...]
On Friday morning, it was a risk off day… But as the day wore on, risk came back into the currencies…. And today, it’s REALLY a risk on day! Apparently, at some time on Friday, someone with a lick of brains realized that the Fed is going to keep their stimulus measures – which include [...]
