Wednesday, October 5, 2011

US Dollar Outlook: Short Term Bullish. Long Term Is Going To Zero.

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 40 minutes ago
It's true that the dollar has no intrinsic value and is being printed into infinity, but the US dollar will be your best friend for the next few months. As global liquidity contracts on EU debt concerns and a possible hard landing in China, Faber advises investors to be long the dollar. Note this is a short-term call; longer term the dollar is going to zero. - *in Seeking Alpha, from the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report* *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.* 




In New Levels Of Bizarro-Land-Ism, IMF Denies Its Own Rumor On Bond Market Intervention

Bond International Monetary Fund Italy Steve Liesman The Associated Press is reporting a wonderfully appropriate comment from Antonio Borges, head of the IMF's Europe program, that he is retracting his earlier comment that they will intervene in bond markets to support Italy and Spain. Oh to have been a fly on the phone call from Christine Lagarde to Borges in which she, in a calm, cool, and collected manner, with little to no use of obscenities, and references of the Spaniard's mother, grandmother, and barn animals, explained to him to, very kindly, say he was only kidding.





Market Snapshot: Credit Outperforming In Europe But Mostly Catching Up

A green day in Europe as last night's superfluous strength in US equities caused reracks in every major European risk class out of the gate. The early strength in Europe was faded quite quickly but the bias was up - even as no new news/plans/clarity was announced and in fact was modestly worse with a lack of capital injection for Dexia noted. Credit and stocks ratcheted higher in three lurches with covering clearly evident in credit as even Belgium and France sovereigns managed small compressions (which makes little sense) though the former remains notably wider on the week (rightly so). FX traded in a narrow range from the US close but the USD was at the stronger-end of the channel as Europe closed (IMF - ECB easing potential comments) but commodities were mixed with lackluster moves overnight though silver and copper sold off the most - not enjoying the excitement in equities - but since the pre-market, all PMs and commodities have pushed higher. TSY yields leaked higher but the curve flattened but we see HY net-selling against IG net-buying (but several major financial bonds being net-sold including MS, GS, and C). We also note that while credit indices do indeed look better on the week, underlying single-names are notably wider which coupled with US corporate bonds suggests many are using strength to cover longs in 'riskier' credits. ES has re-coupled with a longer-term context reducing some of the urgency in equity's bounce though equities remain rich to credit by quite a margin. All-in-all, it seems like we can bleed higher inch by inch as retail gets sucked into another 'recovery/bailout' but under the surface, the 'things' that should be benefiting are simply not as professionals use this strength to rotate hedges or more simply unwind at better marks.





RT America Video: China-US Trade War

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 16 minutes ago
Video topics: US lawmakers are going after China and accusing the country of manipulating currency. A bill recently cleared a hurdle in the Senate to impose tariffs on Chinese imports. Is this a political ploy or does Washington have a legitimate case? Could this turn into a trade war? Jim Rogers, investor and author, helps us sort through these issues. *Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a reg... more »

"New Price"

Dave in Denver at The Golden Truth - 50 minutes ago
I haven't given the condition in the housing market a good beating lately. So, with a limited amount of time to write today, I wanted to share some thoughts/observations. To begin with, with interest rates approaching zero in the area of the Treasury curve where mortgage rates are set per Fed policy, one would think that we should be seeing some sort of recovery in the housing market. I think, to be sure, we saw an ever-so-brief-and-small bounce in prices and volume in some markets early in the summer. This was likely fueled by a temporary drop in overall inventory in some market... more » 

In Latest Bout Of Class Warfare, Multi-Millionaire Harry Reid Seeks To Replace Buffett Tax Proposal With 5% Millionaire Surtax

Confirming that one has to be a billionaire or at least a multi-millionaire to be an applicant for the Tax Czar position under the Teleprompted Wealth Readjuster, is the latest sheer class warfare idiocy out of tax expert du jour Harry Reid, who has proposed an overhaul of the Obama tax bill with one in which millionaires end up paying a 5% surtax. National Journal reports: "Senate Democrats will replace tax increases proposed by President Obama to pay for his $445 billion jobs bill with a more politically popular tax increase on millionaires, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on Wednesday. “When Democrats bring this common-sense jobs legislation to the floor, we’ll ask Americans who make more than a million dollars a year to contribute a little more,” Reid said in a morning floor speech. He said he hopes to set up a vote on the revamped jobs bill "within the next few days." That means he will seek action after the Senate passes a China currency bill and before Senate action on three free trade bills. Reid and Democratic aides have said they planned to alter the pay-fors proposed by Obama to win support of Democrats wary of the tax increases. Reid and other Democrats noted that raising taxes on millionaires polls well, even among GOP voters." Why yes, Harry, please go ahead and create some more class hatred. You should even bring your agenda down to Wall Street and threaten to occupy Wall Street if your demands are not met. But before you do, please make sure you create a poster which highlights not only how much money you have raised from corporate interests during your career, but specifically how much has come from the "Securities and Interest" industry. We are sure you will fit right in with your sincere populist demands.





Arab Spring Makes An Autumn Return: Saudi Police Open Fire On Protesting Civilians

Today's news that Greek protesters were back and getting occasionally violent caught nobody by surprise. However what may be unexpected is that not only is the Arab Spring back (almost in time for Christmas) but it is in the bastion of "stability", not to menion crude oil, Saudi Arabia. As The Independent reports, "Pro-democracy protests which swept the Arab world earlier in the year have erupted in eastern Saudi Arabia over the past three days, with police opening fire with live rounds and many people injured, opposition activists say." What? Never heard of this before? Yes, amazing how efficient the media veil is when it has an agenda.





Goldman Denies CNBC Report It Raised Its Payroll Forecast: Squid Sees Only 50,000 Increase In NFP, And Expects Downside Risk

Remember when some soon to be without any credibility media outlet (BLOOMBERG - GOLDMAN BOOSTS FORECAST FOR SEPT.PAYROLLS TO 91K:CNBC) reported less than an hour ago that Goldman hiked its NFP forecast? Well, said media "outlet" got it wrong. In fact Goldman's forecast is only for a 50,000 increase in NFP. Just out from Goldman: "The ISM non-manufacturing index was about unchanged in September at 53.0, and close to the consensus forecast (52.8). Encouragingly, the indexes for new orders and overall business activity both increased during the month (the new orders index rose by 3.7 points to 56.5). The new export orders deteriorated, suggesting the improvement in new orders reflected domestic demand. The uptick in orders and overall business activity sentiment are good signs for near-term growth momentum.In contrast, the employment component of the report fell by 2.9 points to 48.7. This indicator suggests downside risks to September payroll employment growth, at least partly offsetting the better-than-expected news from the ADP report this morning. Overall we see a bit of upside risk to our forecast for a 50,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls, but we have not made any changes to our estimate (an incorrect report that we changed our estimate was circulating this morning)." And as Zero Hedge already explained, "Interestingly detailed comments from survey participants suggest that confidence and uncertainty may be weighing on activity, and that firms are downbeat about the 2012 outlook." Sorry guys, Goldman hates this economy, and will not relent until Bernanke launches a $2 trillion LSAP. But feel free to sell your gold to Goldman which is buying up every ounce.





Art Cashin On Bernanke Quoting Shakespeare In Swahili, And Everything Else In Yesterday's Surreal Trading Day

To some, yesterday's ridiculous 400 point move in the DJIA in just over 30 minutes on nothing but yet another denied FT rumor, is still mindboggling. Make that to most. Although making things far easier would be to finally accept that the market is completely broken. It is. But in the meantime, here is one way of enjoying it, courtesy of the perspective of the Fermentation Chairman who summarizes all that happened though his veteran eyes.


 

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