Archive - Mar 1, 2011

If RIA Novosti's update on the Middle East escalation is correct, the Middle East's worst kept secret, that Saudi Arabia would interfere militarily in Bahrain before the country fell, has just been confirmed. From RIA: "Saudi Arabia has sent dozens of tanks to Bahrain, where anti-government protests continue for about two weeks, Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses reported seeing "15 tank carriers carrying two tanks each heading towards Bahrain" along the 25-km King Fahd causeway, which links the small island nation of Bahrain to Saudi Arabia." And while nobody expects the DXY to do much if anything on this news, now that the dollar is irrelevant in the FX realm, the same can not be said about silver. Silver just hit $34.43 minutes ago, the highest print in the last 31 years.

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 01/03/11

This morning ahead of the London session we're seeing some strong shifts in retail positioning, USDCAD, USDCHF and USDJPY have been in the strong short zone for a long while, with an unbelievable 80%+ or traders long while these pairs have been consistently selling off! On the flip side of this coin AUDUSD has entered the long zone with 61% of traders short as it nears multi year highs! GBPUSD has been consistently making higher highs and is now kissing a major resistance area at the same time 71% of traders are short this pair!

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has posted a 12% rate of return for 2010, up from 10.6% in 2009. But its funding deficit has tripled to $4.5-billion as its pension benefit obligations have increased.