"Gold Set To Rally" - Goldman Expects Gold To Promptly Rise To $1,480

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2011 07:43 -0400

As we are experiencing a furious regime change, the sellside positional updates are coming fast and furious. The latest major recommendation change comes again from Goldman which has just reiterated its belief gold will reach its 3 month target of $1,480 shortly. Of course, after a Cramer recommendation to buy the metal, this is the only call for a higher gold price that should be of great concern to everyone. From Goldman: "We expect gold prices to rally toward our 3-month price target of $1480/toz, and continue to recommend a long gold trade. While the protests and threat to oil supplies in the Middle East and North Africa drove COMEX gold prices to a new record high of $1437/toz on March 2, the events in Japan have paradoxically sent gold prices back below  $1400/toz despite the ongoing decline in US 10-year TIPS yields. Given the decline in US real interest rates, we see the recent retracement in gold prices as offering a good buying opportunity, and maintain our long gold trading recommendation as we expect gold to rally to our 3-month price target of $1480/toz."

Goldman Raises EURUSD Target To 1.50; Sets 1.35 Stop

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2011 07:33 -0400

At this point in the intervention cycle one would have to be a very brave person to dare to do anything in the FX market: the rules are now changing constantly as the central planners shuffle pieces to avoid giving the impression that the world's financial balance is now hanging by a central bank-woven thread. In the enivronment Goldman's Thomas Stolper has just come out with a lone EURUSD recommendation. We refuse to even analyze what this may mean with regard to Goldman's positioning, suffice to say that Goldman will have to do the opposite to what its clients are trading. However whether it is an initiating or closing trade is unknown. So while the big banks are playing hot currency potato with each other, Goldman now sees the EURUSD rising from the 1.41 range to 1.50, with a 1.35 sto: "US balance of payment pressures and the declining Eurozone fiscal risk premium have been our main G10 themes for some time. The latest evidence re-enforces these trends and suggest EUR/$ can appreciate further from current levels. Other factors, like higher oil prices and monetary policy differences between the inflation targeting ECB and dual-target Fed further strengthen the theme." As to whether this is also merely another attempt to by Goldman to push stocks nominally higher due to real value destruction (plunging dollar) is without question. 

 

 

 

Preparing For A "Chernobyl Solution" - Updated Fukushima Status Summary And Timeline

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2011 07:22 -0400

Presenting an updated Fukushima status update and timeline in which we read for the first time that Fukushima has considered a "Chernobyl Solution" - alas that leads us to believe that there is good reason to assume that the information-starved situation is just as bad as Chernobyl. 

 

 

 

More On "Chernobyl Solution" At Fukushima As Prime Minister Says Japan Releasing All Information It Has

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2011 08:17 -0400

Following now pervaseive allegations of a massive Fukushima accident cover up by the Japanese government including non-disclosure of real radioactive levels, the Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Friday that the government has been dislosing all the information it has on the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant according to Reuters. "We have been honestly saying that the situation with the nuclear plant accident remains very serious," he said in a televised address to the Japanese people marking one week since a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck northeast Japan. At this point we are willing to believe him: judging by the increasingly improvised Japanese response to the catastrophe nobody has any idea what is really going on or how to handle it properly. Which is why very expect to hear increasingly more about the "Chernobyl solution" - or the shotgun "resolution" of the problem by literally burying it in sand. From Reuters: "A "Chernobyl solution" may be the last resort for dealing with Japan's stricken nuclear plant, but burying it in sand and concrete is a messy fix that might leave part of the country as an off-limits radioactive sore for decades. Japanese authorities say it is still too early to talk about long-term measures while cooling the plant's six reactors and associated fuel-storage pools, comes first. "It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete, but our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," a Tokyo Electric Power official told a briefing on Friday." Alas if and when the plan to restore power to blown up cooling plants (has anyone actually seen the before and after pics of the reactor) fails, this will be the only option.

TEPCO Says Reduced Pressure Levels Inside Pressure Vessel Of Reactor 3 Indicates Possible Leakage

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2011 08:29 -0400

Just a troubling headline for now. Considering Reactor 3 was the one most devastated following its explosion earlier this week, this could be a truly disturbing development. This is especially true consider Reactor 3 is the only one at Fukushima whose fuel rods contain Plutnoium. 

 

 

 

Libya Decides To Halt All Military Action, Announces Immediate Ceasefire

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/18/2011 08:39 -0400

Libya announces it accepts the UN resolution, encourages opening of all dialogue with all sides, according to Libyan Foreign Minister. Also, the country has agreed to an immediate ceasefire. WTI drops sharply by $2 on the news, as futures spikes. 

 

 

 

 

Alert: Nuclear (And Economic) Meltdown In Progress.  

These are Martenson's strongest- ever admonitions to get seriously prepared.

 

 

 

James Turk: Gold $8,000 Per Ounce and Hyperinflation a Sure Thing.

 

 

 

As Treasury Cash Drops to Just $14.2 Billion, And No Bond Auctions Until Next Week, is America About to Run Out of Cash?   


US Debt and Deficits Ensure Violent Dollar Sell-Off Ahead  


The Gathering Political and Economic Storm   


Tsunami May Sink US Dollar and Uranium Sector