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"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said Saturday, in Beijing’s first official response to the S&P action, according to wire service reports. "China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets,” it said. Xinhua said the U.S. must slash its "gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs” and accept international supervision over U.S. dollar issues. In cutting its rating of long-term U.S. government debt to AA+, a level below its top-ranked AAA, for the first time, S&P late Friday pointed to the "gulf between the political parties” ... Read more » |
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NEW YORK -- The dollar rose broadly in New York trade Wednesday as Middle East violence, Japan's nuclear crisis, and euro zone debt convulsions prompted a renewed interest in the greenback as an attractive safe-haven option. Notably, the dollar traded up to session highs against the Swiss franc and reversed a trend of the bulk of safe-harbor flows pouring into the Swiss currency. The dollar had recently plumbed several record lows against the Swiss franc. In part, the Federal Reserve policy of persevering with ultra-loose monetary policy--along with still-soaring oil prices that threaten to stoke inflation--had conspired to limit the appeal of the greenback. Last week's intervention by the Group of Seven had stabilized markets to a great degree. But there were signs that that tranquility was fading quickly, said analysts. "The euphoria is wearing off after G- ... Read more » |
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NEW YORK -- Oil futures rose Wednesday as fighting continued in Libya and the U.S. government said U.S. gasoline supplies fell sharply last week. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 77 cents, or 0.7%, to $105.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was down 9 cents at $115.61 a barrel. The front-month Nymex contract got a roughly $1 boost with the expiration of the April contract on Tuesday, which settled at $104 a barrel. The U.S. and its allies continued to pound forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, where 1.3 million barrels a day of oil exports have been sealed off by the fighting and Western sanctions. The U.S. said Tuesday the pace of attacks should slow in the coming days, though market participants have been gripped by uncertainty over how long the fighting will last. "Continued insufficie ... Read more » |
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US Feb New Home Sales Fall 16.9% To Record Low
By ALAN ZIBEL AND JEFF BATER Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -- Sales of new homes plunged last month to a new record low and prices fell to the lowest in more than seven years as the U.S. housing market sputters even as other parts of the economy turn around. Sales sank 16.9% from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 250,000 in February, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The previous record low of 274,000 was set last August. New Home Sales Feb Jan Overall Sales: 250K 301Kr Percentage Change: -16.9% -9.6%r Months' Supply: 8.9 7.4r Consensus: 290K Actual: 250K The results were far worse than forecast. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted the sales rate would rise 2.1% to an annual rate of 290,000. Sales were down 28.0% from February 2010. ... Read more » |
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With gold and silver still consolidating, today King World News interviewed Bill Fleckenstein, President of Fleckenstein Capital. When asked about Fed Chairman Bernanke Fleckenstein stated, "He has been pursuing similar policies to Greenspan and their answer to everything is money printing. They are oblivious to the fact that the excess stimulus they create helps precipitate the bubbles, which leads to disasters, which leads them to more money printing. It’s really sort of shocking to think that these are all theoretically well educated men.”
March 22, 2011 When asked what to look for going forward for gold and silver Fleckenstein remarked, "I think it’s more of the same, more inflation, more watering down of paper money and a continuation of the trends that we have seen. All of those things are going to be supportive of the price of precious metals. I don’t see the central banks doing anything to retard that process. I mean they are al ... Read more » |
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Gold, Silver, PGMs Down On Flight To Cash
By James Campbell
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SINGAPORE -- Gold, silver and platinum group metals were all lower in Asia Tuesday, after the escalating Japan nuclear crisis precipitated steep losses in Japanese equities, pushing Asian investors to move into cash. It was shades of 2008 for the gold market, with the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc appreciating as investors sought liquidity. News of a fire at Tokyo Electric Power's No. 4 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan was the main driver of the selling amid re ... Read more » |
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Due to global demand and short fall in production of commodities, Base metal continue to increase in price.As such , Zinc is going to be the Leading bull in the base met
 als .Hence then keep the long term target of 180 in 2 years time frame. |
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The cost of living in the U.S. climbed more than forecast in January, led by higher prices for food and fuel that may be starting to filter through to other goods and services.
The consumer-price index increased 0.4 percent for a second month, exceeding the 0.3 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The so-called core rate, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, rose 0.2 percent, the biggest gain since October 2009. Growing economies in Asia and Latin America are boosting global demand for oil and other commodities, raising costs for American factories. Accelerating growth is prompting some companies to carry out beginning-of-year price increases even as consumers remain constrained by unemployment at 9 percent. "You’re going to see more companies that attempt to pass through” higher costs, said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets Corp. in New Yor ... Read more » |