Front and center, I can tell you the lofty figures the euro (EUR) reached Friday, after the US printed a 2.5% third quarter GDP, just couldn’t hold through the night last night… You see, there are just too many questions being thrown at the Eurozone leaders about how their “Grand Plan” is going to be carried out.
[Read more...]Will the Focus Now Shift to the US Debt Problem?
October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Front and center this morning… The Eurozone leaders gave the markets something that they liked last night. Well, at least the Asian, and now the European markets liked it. The US guys and gals are always a different story… But for now, the euro (EUR) is soaring and taking all the other currencies higher… The euro has reached 1.40 this morning, which is something given that in recent trading days when the euro was rallying it would stall out around 1.3950…
[Read more...]Central Banks to the Rescue
September 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
OK… Well, the old saying that “the currencies rally while Chuck is away” was drug out of the closet and dusted off yesterday. The currencies did rally, and rally strongly, I might add! But all that good rallying is being wasted this morning, as the dollar fights back.
The Eurozone leaders are meeting in Poland as I write… (This is the meeting that US Treasury Secretary Geithner is attending to lend his expertise in ending a debt problem… OK… I’m laughing so hard right now, I can barely type!) Anyway… The irony of all that can’t get in the way of what’s being discussed, which is a way to give everyone a warm and fuzzy on collateral for the loans they are giving to Greece… Finland has been a real pain in the rear for the Eurozone leaders, as they have, and rightly so, demanded good collateral for their loan participation…
[Read more...]Currencies Are Mixed and In Tight Ranges
August 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It has not been a good week for gold, after climbing to $1,897… The damage to the shiny metal yesterday is something for the ages… You can tell your grandkids that you were around the week that gold lost $XXXX… Right now that figure is $195 in the past three days…
And the tourniquet hasn’t arrived just yet to wrap around the shiny metal, as it has lost another $45 this morning… I told the interviewer for the Street.com last week that gold was trying to correct, but the buyers wouldn’t let it, given all the problems in the world… I guess all those problems have disappeared and there’s no reason to want a safe haven like gold any longer… Really?
[Read more...]Strong Chinese Economic Data Turns the Tables
July 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Well… I have some thoughts on the price action yesterday, and then there’s news from China with their latest economic data, which should explain a lot of why the currencies have rallied back versus the dollar, and gold heads for its all-time record high… So, let’s get this letter out of the starters blocks!
[Read more...]The Inflation Tsunami (Part One of Three)
April 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Over the past year The Amphora Report has written extensively on the topic of inflation, including in Guess What’s Coming to Dinner: Inflation! and The Inflation Tipping Point. While we prefer the monetary definition of inflation as growth in the supply of money and credit, we note that, beginning around mid-2010, the monetary expansion of 2008-09 began to feed through into consumer price inflation. This has continued to the present day and at an accelerating rate. Consumer price inflation data are now surprising to the upside just about anywhere one chooses to look: in Asia, Europe and, more recently, even in the US. To use a timely if tragic metaphor, the inflation ‘tsunami’ set in motion by a massive monetary expansion in 2008-09 is now making landfall around the world, pushing up prices for a broadening range of goods and services.
[Read more...]A Flat Day Trading Currencies
August 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Recall, last Friday, we were waiting for the second quarter GDP print to see if any of the Fed Heads at the Jackson Hole boondoggle would comment on what I expected to see, which was GDP falling to 1.5%…
Well… I should have booked a flight to Vegas on Friday, as I darn near hit the GDP downward revision bang on! The actual number, that is if you even believe that this number is really the “actual number?, was 1.6% for the second qurarter. But, I don't gamble, except for my annual World Series bet on the Cardinals, and an occasional neighborhood, nickel, dime poker game, so… I'll stick to writing…
[Read more...]
Greek PM to Put Bailout to a Vote
The euro (EUR) has gotten swatted back to the corner it came from after the Grand Plan was announced last Wednesday night… The single unit is doing the rope-a-dope, and fighting to stay on terra firma, but to no avail… The scary creature from Greece has deep-sixed the euro and thus the other currencies, even yen (JPY), Swiss francs (CHF), and gold…
[Read more...]