Guest Post: The End Of The Gold Bull Market

Q. With gold and gold stocks on a tear, does Casey Research still recommend holding 1/3 of a portfolio in cash?

A. The answer depends, of course, on what country you are currently sitting in. Were I sitting in the eurozone, I would have already moved much of my safe-harbor cash into the “resource” currencies such as Canada and Norway… i.e., countries that are rich in the natural resources that the world needs and will always need.

If my derrière were resting in a seat planted on U.S. soil, as it is, and I didn’t plan on doing any significant overseas spending, then I would feel relatively comfortable – for the time being, with a larger than usual allocation to the dollar. But I would have been diversifying into the resource currencies as well.

Here Is "Why The World Is Better Than You Think"

A few days we notified readers about Goldman's conference call with the Koolaidy title of "Why the world is better than you think" that sought to soothe the frayed nerves of investors. Now that we are a few hundred DJIA points lower, Goldman's permabullish Jim O'Neill has shared the presentation that goes with the call. So in case you need a little pick-me-up in these days when China is rolling over, Europe is bailing itself out, carry traders are carted out head first, the US is generating record delinquencies, and the HFT marauders may soon be out of a job, here is Goldman with "Why the world i better than you think."

Whopping $9 Billion In Equity Fund Outflows Following Flash Crash

ICI has reported the most recent fund flow data, and it's a doozy. In the week following the flash crash, domestic equity funds saw a whopping $8.6 billion in outflows. As a result, the YTD outflow is over $9 billion, so in essence after almost going back to breakeven before May 6, equity funds are now once again solidly in the red, even as Primary Dealers and HFTs continue to play "hot potato market" with each other. In addition to the carnage in domestic equities, all other mutual funds saw an outflow in the prior week, including foreign equities ($3.7) billion, Hybrid ($0.7) billion, and total bond funds ($1.0) billion, for the first total net outflow across all products in over a year.We will bring you AMG/Lipper fund data once we get it, although we do not expect any notable discrepancies.

Greek Central Bank Accused Of Encouraging Naked Short Selling Of Its Own Bonds

From the FT, and yes, you can't make this up. First we find out the biggest speculators in Greek CDS was Greek Post Bank, and now we discover that Greece itself made shorting of its cash bonds almost a requirement via a change in settlement from T+3 to T+10. Unreal.

Guest Post: White House Covers Up Menacing Oil "Blob"

In an exclusive for Oilprice.com, the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) has learned from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sources that U.S. Navy submarines deployed to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast have detected what amounts to a frozen oil blob from the oil geyser at the destroyed Deep Horizon off-shore oil rig south of Louisiana. The Navy submarines have trained video cameras on the moving blob, which remains frozen at depths of between 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Because the oil blob is heavier than water, it remains frozen at current depths.

Hedge Funds Are Now All Momentum High Frequency Traders - UBS: "Hedge Fund Selling Hits 18 Month High"

How quickly it all changes. Last month hedge funds were buying at the highest rate since October 2007. This month we see hedge fund selling at its fastest rate since January 2009. Also this month, investors were net sellers of cyclicals. During the market sell-off the underperformance of cyclicals was muted (below) and unusual things occurred. Net selling of Telecoms was more extreme than Mining (albeit just). Investors bought Food & Beverage at the fastest pace since August 2008, but also picked up more Consumer Discretionary (partly due to
Autos and currency). Has country risk replaced sector risk? - UBS

Congressional Republicans Calling For Investigation Into ShoreBank Bailout

Yesterday we pointed out how insolvent South Chicago bank ShoreBank was rescued in the last minute by a consortium of banks led by Goldman Sachs, after early unwillingness to provide rescue funding to the bank was overcome once the President allegedly got involved. Today we learn from Fox Biz' Charlie Gasparino that congressional republicans, led by Spencer Bachus, are calling for an investigation into what could turn out to be another crooked scam to bail out an administration darling, because GM and Chrysler were not enough, even as over 70 banks have failed year to date, which however do not have the privilege of being in the president's very good graces.