I had to laugh yesterday when the New York traders came in and didn’t sell the currencies right away… I said to myself, “Self, maybe the ‘big boys’ read the Pfennig and now know that I’ve uncovered their ‘game,’ so they have to lay low for a while!” HA! Whatever the case, the currencies held their gains most of the day, and even added on in some cases.
[Read more...]Greece Disappoints Again!
January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Here we are… The last couple of days of January… So the first month of 2012 is just about over, and already, we’ve heard the Fed push their rate forecast for near zero rates out further, and the Fed laying the groundwork for another round of QE… But… When we began the month/year, everyone was pounding their chests, and talking about what a great year 2012 would be (economic-wise)… Talk about deflating the balloon in the first month of the year!
[Read more...]Big Ben Discusses Another Round of Quantitative Easing
January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I wonder what I’ll talk about today…. Hmmmm… Could it be…. The Fed meeting? Oh, you are so smart! In case you missed this yesterday, because I’m sure the major media outlets couldn’t muster up enough intestinal fortitude to do it, but the Fed threw a cat among the pigeons yesterday… There are a lot of things I’m thinking about, this morning, so, this should be entertaining… For me at least!
[Read more...]Currency Rally Fades in Overnight Trading
January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The currency/risk on rally was quite strong yesterday, all day long! However, in the overnight markets, we’ve seen some profit taking, and reassessing of what they were doing, like pushing the euro to above 1.30. I say that because there’s still no agreement with Greece and the private creditors… I keep hearing and reading analysts, talking about how the Greece problem is unsolvable… OK… maybe it is… but if that’s true, then what about Illinois? Or California?
[Read more...]Home Prices Keep Falling
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day… Should be an interesting week, as the ECOFIN people meet and Greece is still working on their debt and… this will be my first full week of work in over a month, so all in all, pretty interesting!
What I also found interesting on Friday was the price action of silver… I don’t know if you follow silver or not… I do — very closely, I might add! But silver was outperforming gold by a long shot, rising over $1 on the day, which you don’t normally see in the silver price action. My colleague Aaron yelled over the desk to ask me what was going on with silver, as he too watches it closely… I couldn’t really find anything out there, so the thought came to me very quickly that silver must be playing “catch-up”…
[Read more...]The Nearest Thing to a Permanent Thing
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You can find a coin shop in nearly every town in the United States. The proprietor is unlike any you will find in any other store. He is unusually steeped in history, intensely aware of the larger context of the passing economic and political scene. This is because if it is a good shop, you will find the whole history of modern life on exhibit, and learn more from looking than you find in a multivolume history.
[Read more...]The Nearest Thing to a Permanent Thing
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You can find a coin shop in nearly every town in the United States. The proprietor is unlike any you will find in any other store. He is unusually steeped in history, intensely aware of the larger context of the passing economic and political scene. This is because if it is a good shop, you will find the whole history of modern life on exhibit, and learn more from looking than you find in a multivolume history.
[Read more...]Eurozone Data Continues to Print Weak
January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There’s a lot to get to this morning… but front and center is the Jobs Jamboree Friday… The first one of 2012, although it is December’s job creation report. The ADP jobs report yesterday, which was supposed to be the “indicator” for the Jobs Jamboree, but never really materialized as such, reported that 325,000 jobs were created in December… Now, that would be something to crow about… It will be interesting to see what the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) comes up with… As I told you earlier this week, this is also the month were the “adjustments” to previous BLS reports are made… However, those won’t get a spotlight, and mass media coverage… They are done under the dark of night, sort of like the bill that was signed on New Year’s Eve by the President… If you’re not aware of that one, you should be… Your personal freedoms could very well hang in the balance…
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Currencies Hold Ground Ahead of Jobs Jamboree
This morning, the currencies look pretty much like they did yesterday when I left the office… There’s still the Sword of Damocles hanging over the euro (EUR), in the form of Greek negotiations to obtain help from private lenders. This has dragged on now for over two weeks, and I’ve given up on it happening… You only have to disappoint me twice before I get the message!
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