Data shows just how bad things are… Trade deficits narrow… EU confirms they are in a recession… RBA intervening again… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Paulson throws the markets a curve… Goldman says to buy the yen… RBA intervenes to protect the AUD$…
China provides support to commodities… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Credit fears ease… Chuck’s thoughts from the road… India cuts rates… China growth slows, but is still 9%…
And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Good day…These dramatic swings in the markets are becoming so common place that a move of 400 pts by the Dow doesn’t really garner much notice. After all, in the past five days, the Dow Jones average has had a trading range of almost 2,000 points, but after five dramatic days the stock market is trading almost exactly where it was a week ago.
Good day…And what a day it was! As I stated in yesterday’s Pfennig, Columbus day is just sort of a holiday for the markets. These ’semi-holidays’ can create some volatile trading, as not all of the markets are open and many desks are short staffed. So with the Federal Reserve and the banking system closed, the equity markets had the largest one day gain in over seven decades.
Bernanke gets help opening the spigot… Euro and Pound rally… Yen to continue to benefit from carry reversals… Aussie $ rallies… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
Bernanke and Paulson have been worn down from the one-off situations they have been dealing with, and finally came to the realization that the problem is much more pervasive than previously thought. Ahoy thar maties… Yesterday was a very volatile day in what has become an incredibly choppy week.
Late yesterday evening, the government bailed out insurer AIG (NYSE:AIG) with a ‘bridging loan’ of $85 billion.
Taxpayers are now on the hook for Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and AIG – three corporate giants that have lost a lot of money by doing stupid things with their money.
“All this debt [...] has to be paid back,” says currency expert Chris Gaffney. “And how does the government plan to do this? With cheaper dollars…”
Central Bank intervention is the reason… Busy data week… Australia’s central bank to mirror the BOE?… China to slow appreciation … And Now… Today’s Pfennig!
The dollar is definitely breaking out of its long slump. The Dollar Index on the ICE futures exchange, which tracks the dollar against the currencies of six US trading partners, reached its highest level today since February 26. Traders are looking for a reason to sell the euro says Chris Gaffney in The Daily Reckoning. But do the fundamentals support the dollar bulls? More from Chris below…
