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!

ECB to change dollar’s direction?… BOE leaves rates unchanged… The worst is not over in US housing… Japan’s government signals expansion is over.. And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

I will point out that you can make an argument that the corporate motto of ‘No refunds for any reason, including incompetence and theft!’ is not even original, as that is the whole attitude of the banks in general and the Federal Reserve in particular: incompetence and theft!

Gold was tightly rangebound from the overseas markets straight through the NYMEX and Globex sessions on Wednesday, bouncing between $860 and $870, and finishing at $864.40, down $1.30.

In the currency market, the dollar slipped against the euro. Late Monday, the euro was trading at $1.5491 vs. $1.5424 on Friday.

In the energy market Friday, crude for June delivery shot higher after three straight days of declines, rising to $116.32/barrel, up $3.80. June reformulated gasoline gained 8.82 cents, to $2.9664/gallon.

Gold and oil both traded down about 2.5% overnight in New York. The Fed is meeting in Washington, D.C. We’ll know soon what, if anything, it plans to do. But does it really matter?

We’ve seen this type of dollar frenzy before, but calmer heads have always come back to the table to point out the awful fundamentals that the dollar carries around like an albatross around its neck.

The Bear Stearns rescue and the Treasury department’s call for a new “blueprint”  have helped ignite a rally in financial stocks… but it seems nothing can kickstart the dollar.

As Wall Street continues to put their faith in the “goldilocks” hypothesis, it may come as a surprise to those familiar with my more negative view that I too fully expect this scenario to unfold.