Archive - May 16, 2011

This disaster is gathering speed.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that “the sharp drop in gold and silver prices has stimulated a surge in buying from India in a sign that consumers in the world’s largest gold-buying country retain faith in the decade-long bull story for precious metals.” Chhabil Jain, a Mumbai silver trader told the Financial Times that “demand for silver bars was going through the roof” and that “many vendors were starting to run low on stocks”. “People are booking incredible amounts of silver as they see the current drop in prices as a great opportunity to buy more ... most are buying for pure investment,” he added. Bloomberg reports this morning that silver was the most traded commodity in April.

Lots of data with Empire Index, Capital Flows and the Housing market index on deck, but the biggest news everyone will be waiting for is the predicted debt ceiling breach, which should be formalized at 4:00 pm today.

As expected, the world's most grotesquely disguised LBO in the form of the debt-financed acquisition of the NYSE by Nasdaq and ICE, has been pulled, formally on grounds of regulatory approval concerns, realistically but due to "market conditions" manifesting in the form of a market downtick. This could very well be the market top.

With prices of various precious metals hanging in the ropes, even bellwether gold had to take a step back. But if we dig a little deeper, we only see new gold records ahead… in euro!

Yesterday we brought up the likelihood that more women would step up against DSK now that his supposed reign of terror is over, with revelations that journalist Tristan Banon, goddaughter to his second wife, may have been raped by the IMF head some time ago, a topic now picked up by the Guardian. Well according to BFMTV, as of this morning she has officially deposed a complaint in the police office of Neuilly-sur-Seine (92), France for rape and sequestration. As a result DSK is now technically under two rape investigations: one in the US and one in France. And this is just the beginning.

S&P 500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Russell 2000, Nymex Crude Oil, Comex Gold, EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY

A snapshot of the European Morning Briefing covering Stocks, Bonds, FX, etc.
Market Recaps to help improve your Trading and Global knowledge

This article discusses the current path our economy is taking. While most economists believe the Q1 GDP stumble was a temporary blip in an ongoing recovery, I believe it is the beginning of a downward trend of economic stagnation and inflation. The root of this is the Fed's attempts to inflate the economy into recovery.