Sweden to GM/Saab: Drop Dead!

Oil fell more than a dollar to below $44 on Thursday as a record drop in euro zone economic performance heightened expectations that fuel consumption would shrink further.

HSBC said it was cutting 6,100 jobs… closing offices all over America.

The weekend news from every corner of the globe [especially Europe and Britain] was absolutely wretched…and gold and silver did exactly what one would expect the moment that trading began in the Far East on Monday morning…they took off to the upside. However, for some strange reason, gold couldn’t make it above $960…and shortly after London opened…the gold price was under pressure once again. Then, at precisely 9:00 a.m. in trading on the Comex in New York…the rug, once again, got pulled out from under the price. The gold price began to rally again the moment that London closed for the day, but got stopped dead in its tracks at half past lunchtime in New York.

World stocks took yet more losses Tuesday, with Europe shares hitting a record low, a day after most equity markets suffered a thorough battering at the hands of investors fearful for the global financial system.

Gold didn’t do much in Far East trading until later in the day in Hong Kong. A small rally started that got hit shortly after London opened. Every little rally attempt [including the little one in Hong Kong] got sold off by some not-for-profit seller before it could develop any legs to the upside. The top in the gold price was at the London open…and the low of the day was at the London close. From the London close, gold rallied about $15 right into the close of electronic trading on the Globex at 5:15 in New York.

As per normal, every little rally attempt in early Far East trading in Sydney got firmly sold off…and by the time that London opened for business on Monday morning, gold was down about $12.

The global economic meltdown has struck golf industry, dragging on tourism and travel, delaying golf course construction, and curbing club membership rolls.

“Synchronized boom, synchronized bust,” explains our old friend Marc Faber in the Wall Street Journal. Where have you gone Alan Greenspan? Your nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Ou… ou… ou…

Gold didn’t do much in the Far East or Europe on Wednesday…but the bottom, if you want to call it that, occurred shortly after the start of floor trading on the Comex yesterday morning in New York. From that low, gold rose steadily…gaining a little over $20 between then and the close of electronic trading at 5:15 yesterday afternoon. In the process, it set another new high for this move.