OK, front and center this morning, the currencies tried to rally almost all day yesterday, only to find themselves weaker on the day at day’s end, due to the drop in stocks (risk assets) I said a month or so ago that I hoped the currencies would break their tie with stocks, which wasn’t the normal way these two asset classes are priced. I said that, because I was convinced that stocks were simply going through the motions of a bear market rally, and would turn south at some time… Of course, the time could be now, as U.S. Corporations begin announcing earnings for the 1st QTR 2009… If the first Corporation to announce is any indication of the earnings season we’re about to venture through, then you had better run for the hills! Alcoa reported a 59-cent per share loss, which was worse than projected at 56-cents…

So… For now, currencies are lock-step in tune with stocks, which as I said isn’t the norm… But, it what’s happening now…

Yesterday, I told you that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) had cut rates 25 BPS, and the A$ was recovering from the blow of a rate cut, but one that wasn’t as big as traders thought… Well, there was more news from the RBA, and their Gov. Mr. Stevens, who said that “the recession in Australia is much milder than those in Europe and the U.S.” Hmmm, I think he was preparing to leave the rate cut table, don’t you? To me, that’s Central Bank parlance for “This is it, no more rate cuts!” Which, if it’s the case, the A$ should begin to see some real activity…

And… The news from China continues to point to their stimulus working and that economy pulling out of the doldrums faster than the rest of the world. (see what happens when you deal from a position of strength?) Of course that remains to be seen… But like I said, I read at least one story a day about how China’s economic activity is stirring… So… Let’s just play along with those thoughts for a minute… What does that mean for Australia? It would mean that happy days are here again, The skies above are clear again. So let’s sing a song of cheer again. Happy days are here again. Or least something like that… Why you may ask? It all has to do with the need that China has for raw materials, which in the past they received the majority of those needed from Australia… So, now, you can see the tie-in, eh?

Oh… But… If currencies don’t break this trading pattern with stocks, we won’t have any Happy Days in Australia or any other country for that matter, except Japan, which is a counter trade these days…

OK… And now for Mr. Mayo… Yesterday, I told you all about this bank analyst from Caylon Securities, and how he threw a cat among the pigeons with his call that bank losses will exceed those in the depression… The Risk takers headed for the hills, and the safe haven flows into Treasuries were once again the trade du jour… Well… Ty Keough was the first to tell me yesterday that Jim Cramer was pointing out all of Mr. Mayo’s past errors… That’s good, I’ll leave all that to Jim Cramer, because… I’m not here to bash Mr. Mayo… What I’m here to question is why the markets were so moved by the statements of one man? Oh well… I carry on, despite the markets’ indiscretions!

I watched two videos yesterday of interviews with currency analysts, of which both said they believed the dollar’s rally was just about to reach an end… Hmmm… They didn’t say why they thought that, but they said it…

Japan posted a very interesting number last night… Japan’s Current Account Surplus shrunk 56% in Feb. In January of this year, Japan posted their first deficit in 13 years… Interesting, eh? Exports have plunged… But, with the weakness in the Japanese domestic economy, I would suspect that imports too will plunge soon, thus leveling this out…

Yesterday I talked about Ireland and their problems briefly… Well, this morning there’s a story regarding Ireland and what they are attempting to do to cut this problem off at the pass. Finance Minister, Lenihan is mirroring the tactics Sweden took in the 1990’s when their financial system teetered on the cliff of disaster. That’s a good thing in my book… I talked about the “Nordic way to deal with financial disaster” months ago… I’ve never cared for the way we are going about dealing with this here in the U.S. and preferred the Nordic way of dealing with “bad banks”…

If you would allow me to go off on a tangent here… (if not skip to the next paragraph!) But, why did Paulson, and now Geithner, along with Bernanke believe that throwing Billions / Trillions of dollars at this problem was the correct thing to do? I mean, we got into this mess because there was too much money in the system and it wasn’t regulated… So… The answer is to throw even more money at this problem? I just don’t get it, folks! I have a cartoon that I cut out of the paper a month ago, that just cracks me up… It has a character watching TV… And from the TV you see this quote… “And as President, I can assure you… That the ERA of tax cuts and wasteful spending is over”… And in the next box/ quote… “Get ready for the ERA of NO Tax Cuts, and REALLY Wasteful Spending”… That just about tells it all, eh?

Remember what I told you on Monday about what Richard Russell had to say when he was asked what he would do now… He simply stated… “nothing”… “I would let the bear markets run their course”

I saw this in the WSJ this morning… “The Treasury Department plans to extend the Troubled Asset Relief Program to certain eligible life insurers. Several life insurers have been burdened lately by capital constraints amid ailing markets.”

Oh great! The Treasury Dept. is bound and determined to spend all the TARP money even if it goes toward things / companies that it wasn’t created for! Records show that there is about $130 Billion left to spend… Come on Mr. Treasury Sec. this isn’t a re-run of the movie Brewster’s Millions! (you might recall that movie, as Richard Pryor inherited a million dollars, but had to spend it all to receive it, or something like that….)

Gold held onto those gains I talked about yesterday morning, and has added another $5.25 this morning… The shiny metal is back to $887… A reader asked me yesterday about Gold dipping below $900… Hmmm… It’s my feeling that buying Gold on the dips is a good practice… But then, who’s to say that Gold doesn’t fall even further before turning around? I don’t think anyone would bet against that happening… My point is, if you can buy it cheaper today than you could yesterday or last week it’s a bargain! If it falls further… It’s an even better bargain!

The euro has been gaining ground since I turned on the screens this morning, rising from 1.32 to 1.3255 as I type my fat fingers to the bone! You know… Eventually, the chickens will come home to roost on all the debt and money supply and treasury issuance and failed corporations and the depression in the U.S. and when they do… One would have to think that the dollar will get punished severely… And I mean severely! But all that remains to be seen… The best thing to do though is to give your investment portfolio a hedge… And make certain that you don’t have all “dollar denominated” asset classes / investments! A diversification that does NOT require a 100% move out of the dollar! Currencies and metals are asset classes just like stocks, bonds, mutual funds… Add them to your portfolio and reduce the overall risk of that portfolio!

Not much in the data cupboard today… The FOMC meeting minutes from March 17-18, when the Fed announced that they were buying Treasuries, thus monetizing the debt… It will be interesting to see what led to that decision, or who came up with that idea… The Treasury has another auction to get through the system today, this time of 3-year notes. The yield on those notes will probably be around 1.25%… Ooooohhhhh, where do I sign up? NOT!

Currencies today 4/8/09: A$ .71, kiwi .5760, C$ .81, euro 1.3255, sterling 1.4710, Swiss .8725, rand 9.20, krone 6.72, SEK 8.22, forint 223.80, zloty 3.3850, koruna 20.06, yen 100, sing 1.5150, HKD 7.75, INR 50.19, China 6.8470, pesos 13.52, BRL 2.2150, dollar index 85.30, Oil $47.78, Silver $12.29, and Gold… $885

Source:  Needing To Break The Pattern

Right out of the starters blocks this morning, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) pulled the rug right out from under the “high yield status” of their economy, with another HUGE rate cut overnight… This time, the RBA cut 100 BPS, to an internal cash rate of 4.25%. This brings the total since September to 300 BPS! WOW! Talk about effectively unwinding seven years of tightening! The statement following the rate announcement leads me to believe that the RBA is probably finished cutting rates for now… It will be a wait-n-see what happens globally, before the RBA entertains any talk of further rate cuts… At least that’s my opinion!

Had a long talk with the legal beagles yesterday… The just don’t like what / how I say things. This all stems from complaints we’ve received that claim that, “I give investment advice”. Of course when the currencies were going up, up, up and away, in my beautiful balloon, for 6 years, we didn’t hear of any complaints or claims that I was “giving investment advice”… Any way… It is what it is… I call it “Market Commentary”… And everything I say is “Chuck’s opinion” not that of EverBank’s and the last time I looked… Opinion is: not to provide investment advice or to manage your money – THOSE ARE DECISIONS THAT YOU HAVE TO MAKE.

Well… Now that I’ve said all that… Guess what finally happened yesterday, that I’ve said was the case since January? Yes, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finally came clean and said that the U.S. has been in a recession since December, 2007. Here’s where I could go totally sophomoric on you and say, “I told you so!” but I won’t, no wait, I already did! But, that’s not my intention. I only carry on about his because recently I’ve had a few people tell me that I have no foresight, and that I merely react to things… Hmmm… I said this was a recession 11 months ago, long before the un-dynamic duo of Paulson and Bernanke would admit it, and long before your friendly neighborhood economist would admit it, and way before the NBER, the official arbiters of this call, admitted it.

The currencies remained in a very tight range yesterday with a bias to buy dollars, with the Huge stock sell off… The stock jockeys didn’t fall all over themselves on this news, and that surprised me… Here’s why… You see, most times, in the past, by the time the NBER gets around to calling a recession, the recession is either over or about to be over. So, knowing this, I figured the stock jockeys would be falling all over themselves, calling out that the light at the end of the tunnel could be seen…

The problem with that mentality is that not all recession calls by the NBER have signaled the end of the recession. Take… The recession that started in July 1981, which was announced in January 1982, and that recession ended 10 months later in November 1982. That’s the scenario I’m afraid that we are going to revisit this time. I’ve already said that I believe 4th QTR GDP will show a negative -5% figure, so that’s right now, and there’s no way, the economy rebounds from a negative -5% drop in a heartbeat… This is going to be a long, protracted recession, but then, the song remains the same here for me… I’ve said that for a long time now!

We heard from Federal Reserve Chairman Big Ben Bernanke yesterday… Big Ben said “further interest-rate cuts are “certainly feasible,” but he warned there are limits to how much such action would revive an economy likely to stay weak well into next year.”

Mr. Bernanke also said the “Fed’s powers don’t end with the federal funds rate, and its ability to inject liquidity into markets through its balance sheets “remains effective.”

I guess, that was the wink and nod that interest rates are going lower, and that… The Fed is going to continue to take in toxic securities on their balance sheet…

OK… There’s a story on the news wires this morning that according to the charts at the Bank of Tokyo, yen could push to 79.75 VS the dollar. WOW! I think these chartists should go back and check their angles again, because that’s a phenomenal move in yen, and I can’t believe the Bank of Japan (BOJ) wouldn’t be in the markets intervening (selling yen) to keep that from happening… But for what its worth… There you go!

Today, we’ll see U.S. Treasury Sec. Paulson speaking about the U.S. / China economic strategy… Hmmm… I wonder if old Hank, will ruffle a few Chinese feathers with his speech, or will he go quietly? I think that after yesterday’s .75% drop in renminbi, followed by a “regular” .30% drop last night, which puts renminbi at a 5-month low, that Paulson will be in a feather ruffling mood, especially, given the thought that he only has about a month left on his Treasury Sec. watch…

Remember about a month ago, I told you all about the early part of this decade, when the global economies were all fighting with recessions, and that the currencies were getting rewarded whenever a Central Bank cut rates to promote growth? I said then, that we could very well relive that scenario, and each time the RBA gives us one of those “mega rate cuts” I notice the A$ rallies… I guess, after we get through the next two weeks of Central Bank rate cuts, we’ll have a better idea if this is going to play out again, but for now, it sure is beginning to look like it will…

Looks like the airlines are “hurtin’ for certain” as I saw two different ads in the weekend paper for $49 flights… Southwest and American Airlines were promoting those discount flights… Of course there were tons of “terms and conditions” but the key here is the offer of discount flights…

I see from the U.K. Telegraph that AIG is beginning to sell off assets in an attempt to pay back the $153 Billion “loan” the Gov’t gave them. And I see where JP Morgan Chase is going to lay off 9,000 employees. And that there are rumors that Britain is entertaining thoughts about joining the euro again… They can forget about that! The people of Britain are NOT going to vote for that to happen… At least that’s how I see it from the cheap seats.

And yesterday… The piece of data that “told me” we were in a recession, the ISM (manufacturing) Index printed… And the index number fell by a greater margin than the “experts” forecast, and brought it to the lowest level (36.2) since 1982! Again, folks, this is a very “telling” piece of data, and confirms my belief that we’re in for a long, protracted recession, as this looks like the early 80’s recession and not those willy nilly ones of the 90’s and 2000’s!

The only data we’ll see today, is the vehicle sales, which is expected to fall again… I see where Ford is going to announce that they are going to change their focus to small, fuel efficient cars instead of Trucks and SUV’s, hoping that will “win over” Congress to give them a loan… I also see where Ford is offering “employee prices” plus a rebate for a select group of their cars… (that “employee pricing” is a bunch of bunk if my opinion any way!)

So, there’s a collection of some of the items that’s will drag on the U.S. economy… And eventually the dollar, once we get past this credit crisis…

Next on the rate cut block is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, (RBNZ) who meets tonight… I think the RBNZ will play a game of poker with the RBA, and say…”I’ll see your 100 BPS, and raise you 50 BPS”… That’s right, I think we’ll see 150 BPS rate cut from the RBNZ… Like I’ve said a few times now, rates are going lower all over the world folks, we should all get ready for this!

I sure ruffled a few feathers yesterday when I printed a comment from someone else about the Energy Dept… Folks… The point was simply that we don’t need the Gov’t operating private businesses, like banking… That’s all it was…

The Retail folks are “happy” with the sales figures from the first weekend of Christmas sales… But, “happy” isn’t “giddy”… And that’s going to be a problem for the retailers this Christmas… They’ll see sales… But they won’t be “giddy”… And wasn’t that a shame in NY where a Wal-Mart worker lost his life in a store opening stampede? That’s a shame, it really is… It’s not like Wal-Mart was giving stuff away free! I’ll stop there, the story is sad enough…

Time to head to the Big Finish…

Currencies today 12/2/08: A$ .6480, kiwi .5345, C$ .8040, euro 1.2670, sterling 1.4940, Swiss .8290, ISK 230, rand 10.38, krone 7.0875, SEK 8.3175, forint 206.35, zloty 3.0160, koruna 20.2860, yen 92.20, baht 35.50, sing 1.5285, HKD 7.75, INR 50.14, China 6.8875, pesos 13.55, BRL 2.30, dollar index 86.85, Oil $49.23 ( I paid $1.84 for premium gas this morning, YAHOO!), Silver $9.44, and Gold… $778

That’s it for today… My little buddy, Alex, was writing a paper on the Revolutionary War last night, and we were talking about “taxation without representation”, and thought for a moment before going to bed, that, I kind of feel like that’s what we’re receiving now, today!

Source: The NBER Finally Says So!