Investors who trade actively and are closely in touch with the ebb and flow of opinion on Wall Street have one enormous barrier to good investment performance: They will often be seduced by what’s fashionable – whether it be in terms of sectors, countries or individual stocks.
UBS Posts $1.7 Billion Loss; Infosys Forecast First Sales Drop; FDI in China Slips Again; Annual CPI Falls For First Time Since 1955; Homebuilder Sentiment Rises; BofA Raises Credit Card Transfer Fees to 4%; Cisco Deal Clears FTC; Brazil’s Bonds Rise On Interest Rate Cuts
Gold was higher in the far East on Monday, flattened out in London, but took off once New York opened and continued to rise to a peak of $900 at noon, at which point it was driven down and declined through the rest of the Comex and went flat on the Globex, finishing at $892.60/oz., up $13.40. Overnight, gold has been flat.
Japan’s exports were cut nearly in half last month as the global downturn crushed demand for the country’s electronics and automobiles, a development that increases the odds that the Japanese yen could be poised for a tumble.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech to the joint session of Congress this week was a beautiful performance. His language was exquisite, his delivery was superb, his rhetoric – at times – truly uplifting.
Except for lead, the base metals were all higher on Tuesday. Copper jumped more than 4 cents from yesterday’s close to $1.4872/lb. Nickel tacked on just under 14 cents to finish at $4.3522/lb. Zinc was little changed, ending at $0.4868/lb. Aluminum rose by almost 2 pennies, closing at $0.5848/lb., while lead sank to $0.4530/lb., down one-third of a cent.
U.S. Sues UBS; Unemployment Highest Since 1967; BoA Criticizes Housing Plan; Oil Soars Over $39; HP Lowers Forecast; Brazilian Jetmaker Cuts 20% of Workforce
Live Nation Buys Ticketmaster; China Inflation Trudging Slowly; MillerCoors Profit Falls 40%; UBS Cuts Jobs, Announces Profitability; Traders Bid up Gold Options; Oil Falls Below $39;WalMart Cuts Jobs at Home Office; Cisco Raises $4 Billion
I dropped in on the Cambridge House gold show in Vancouver this weekend. It was busy. People were generally upbeat and felt smart about the bargains they loaded up on during the recent rout. It was then that I realized that one gold ratio would lead to lower gold bullion prices while leading gold shares higher.
With the U.S. credit markets in lockdown mode, a whipsaw stock market that keeps anyone from getting too comfortable, a banking sector in chaos and a recession that clearly won’t be ending any time soon, U.S. dealmakers are looking at a market for mergers and acquisitions that’s in a virtual deep freeze.
