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5 June 2012 at 12 : 48 PM
Europe’s Mess: Time for the US to Clean It Up
By Steve Liesman 05-Jun (CNBC) — When it comes to Europe, incremental and mealy mouthed haven’t worked. It’s time for big and bold. Waiting for Europe to get its act together to solve its financial problems has become an even more insufferable drama than “Waiting for Godot.” They keep talking but a financial solution never [...]
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5 June 2012 at 10 : 15 AM
G7 hold emergency eurozone talks
05-Jun (The Finacial Times) — Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven leading industrial nations held a conference call on Tuesday to discuss the financial crisis in the eurozone, and its implications for the global economy. The US Treasury, which hosted the call as the current president of the G7, said [...]
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5 June 2012 at 10 : 09 AM
CBO: Federal debt to double in 15 years
05-Jun (WashingtonTimes) — The federal government is staring at a disastrous fiscal picture with debt approaching 200 percent of GDP within two decades if Congress doesn’t change course on spending and taxes, according to the latest analysis by the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday. CBO said it’s the worst picture since a brief period during [...]
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5 June 2012 at 10 : 38 AM
The Daily Market Report
Gold Continues to Serve as a Safe-Haven, Regardless of Price 05-Jun (USAGOLD) — I was contacted by a MarketWatch reporter last week who asked me: Whatever happened to gold as a safe-haven? This was on Thursday, the day before gold posted its biggest one-day gain in nearly three-years. I suspect those gains have somewhat tempered [...]
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5 June 2012 at 09 : 58 AM
Euro Troubles: The End of Germany’s Illusions
05-Jun (Der Spiegel) — Germany’s booming economy and plummeting unemployment has long insulated the country from the euro crisis on Europe’s periphery. Those times, however, are coming to an end. The German economy is now showing it is vulnerable after all, and Chancellor Merkel will now be forced to make sacrifices. There they are again: [...]
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5 June 2012 at 09 : 06 AM
JPMorgan Faces $4.2 Billion Trading Loss, ISI Forecasts
05-Jun (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the largest U.S. bank, may report a $4.2 billion second-quarter trading loss in its chief investment office, according to an estimate by International Strategy & Investment Group Inc. The pretax loss would help cut second-quarter earnings to 65 cents a share, a 30 percent decline from an [...]
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5 June 2012 at 09 : 54 AM
Operation Twist: New York Fed purchases $4.854 billion in Treasury coupons.
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5 June 2012 at 08 : 32 AM
Australia Trims Rate to Ward Off Global Troubles
05-Jun (NY Times) — The Australian central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for a second consecutive month Tuesday in a bid to shore up confidence at home, as finance chiefs of advanced economies around the world prepared to hold emergency talks on the euro zone debt crisis. Citing a weaker outlook abroad and only [...]
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5 June 2012 at 08 : 28 AM
Nervous Europeans Snap Up London Property
04-Jun (NY Times) — Britain may be in recession, but business is booming for Rupert des Forges, a real estate agent in one of London’s most expensive neighborhoods. He expects it will take just a few weeks to find a foreign buyer for a 1,530 square-foot, or 140-square-meter, apartment within a mansion, with concierge, in [...]
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5 June 2012 at 08 : 55 AM
Turkish gold imports jump 150 pct, Iran buying seen
01-Jun (TheDailyStar – Lebanon) — Turkish gold imports leapt by 150 percent in May due to unrelenting demand from sanctions-strapped Iran, where buyers are increasingly choosing to keep savings in the precious metal rather than paper currency. Turkey has imported 19.47 tonnes of gold in May, up from 7.78 tonnes in April, according to data [...]
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5 June 2012 at 08 : 35 AM
BoC held steady, leaving the policy rate unchanged at 1.00%, in-line with expectations. Slightly less hawkish stance noted.
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5 June 2012 at 08 : 50 AM
US ISM Non-Manufacturing index edged higher to 53.7 in May, on expectations of 53.5, vs 53.5 in Apr.
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5 June 2012 at 07 : 00 AM
Fed “back in play” as Europe crisis intensifies
04-Jun (Reuters) — Europe’s escalating debt crisis is emerging as a top concern for Federal Reserve officials and could nudge them closer to more bond buying or extending “Operation Twist,” the U.S. central bank’s most recent program to lower long-term borrowing costs. The turmoil in the euro zone has risen to near fever pitch with [...]
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5 June 2012 at 06 : 05 AM
Spain Minister Urges EU Aid for Banks in First Plea for Help
05-Jun (Bloomberg) — Spain called for outside support for the first time to battle the financial crisis as Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said European institutions should help shore up the nation’s lenders. Spanish banks don’t need “excessive” amounts to recapitalize, and the question is “where that figure comes from,” Montoro said in an interview with [...]
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5 June 2012 at 06 : 46 AM
Gold steady at 1619.66 (+0.22). Silver 28.40 (+0.092). Dollar mixed. Euro retreats. Stocks called mixed. Treasurys mostly lower.
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4 June 2012 at 13 : 14 PM
Hong Kong-China gold flow jumps 62 pct in April
04-Jun (Reuters) – Hong Kong shipped 101,768 kilograms of gold to mainland China in April, up 62 percent on the month and marking the second-highest monthly exports, the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department said on Monday. [source] Share
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4 June 2012 at 10 : 09 AM
Operation Twist: New York Fed purchases $4.745 billion in Treasury coupons.
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4 June 2012 at 09 : 05 AM
Morning Snapshot
04-Jun (USAGOLD) — Gold remains generally well bid in the wake of Friday’s impressive gains. Sadly, the catalyst for the biggest one-day rise in the yellow metal in three-years was a raft of pretty dismal US economic data, most notably the May nonfarm payrolls report, which saw the unemployment rate tick higher for the first [...]
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4 June 2012 at 08 : 21 AM
Mikhailovich: Be Safe — Buy Physical Gold and Stash It Read more: Mikhailovich: Be Safe — Buy Physical Gold and Stash It
03-Jun (MoneyNews) — The U.S. and other major economies remain constantly at risk of suffering another 2008-style financial collapse, and that makes stashing physical gold as one of the safest investments around, says Eidesis Capital’s Simon Mikhailovich. The U.S. is trying to pay down its massive debts, but politicians tend to put off politically painful [...]
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4 June 2012 at 08 : 15 AM
Big factory orders miss on top of last week’s grim jobs data sends some of those in the record dollar long position heading toward the exit.
EUR-USD attempts to regain 1.2500. Share
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4 June 2012 at 08 : 07 AM
US factory goods orders -0.6% in Apr, well below market expectations of +0.3% vs big negative revision for Mar from -1.5% to -2.1%; inventories unch.
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4 June 2012 at 07 : 29 AM
Are Low Interest Rates Good?
PG View: With talk of QE3 on the rise in the wake of Friday’s dismal jobs report, it’s worth considering the pros and cons of the Fed’s Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) and the other monetary tools it uses to artificially suppress yields. Share
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4 June 2012 at 07 : 39 AM
Portugal Bailout on Track But Unemployment Worries
04-Jun (The Wall Street Journal) — Portugal’s EUR78 billion aid program remains on track and its banks are stronger following a capital injection by the state, bailout officials said Monday, although they warned an unexpected rise in unemployment poses a risk to budget goals. Portugal, which started receiving financial support a year ago, has become [...]
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4 June 2012 at 07 : 03 AM
Portugal props up banks with €6.6bn
04-Jun (The Telegraph) — Three top Portuguese banks will receive a huge injection of public cash, the finance ministry said Monday, as Portugal passed its fourth bailout review to open the way for more EU-IMF rescue loans. In agreeing to inject more than €6.65bn into the private banks BCP and BPI and state-owned Caixa Geral [...]
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4 June 2012 at 06 : 43 AM
World stocks fall on dismal US hiring report
04-Jun (AP) – World markets took a beating Monday as another setback for the U.S. economic recovery sent investors fleeing from stocks. A weak U.S. jobs report flustered investors and intensified fears that a global recession was in the making. The dismal report released Friday came on the heels of other data that showed weak [...]
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4 June 2012 at 06 : 14 AM
Gold easier at 1616.40 (-7.70). Silver 28.43 (-0.08). Dollar lower. Euro steady. Stocks called modestly higher. Treasurys mostly lower.
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1 June 2012 at 16 : 06 PM
Fed Debate Builds as Outlook Dims
By Jon Hilsenrath 01-Jun (The Wall Street Journal) — Friday’s dismal jobs report is sure to sharpen a debate at the Federal Reserve about whether to take new actions to spur economic growth, but it likely doesn’t settle it. Some Fed officials had already started arguing for more action before Friday’s report that the unemployment [...]
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1 June 2012 at 16 : 04 PM
Fed Will Likely Weigh Rosengren’s Call for Stimulus
01-Jun (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve policy makers this month will consider joining Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren’s call for renewed stimulus after a report today showed unemployment rose to 8.2 percent in May, economists said. Rosengren said the Fed should further its full-employment mandate and extend beyond June a program known as Operation Twist, which [...]
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1 June 2012 at 16 : 30 PM
Stocks Have Worst Day of 2012
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1 June 2012 at 14 : 19 PM
The Jobs Disaster
01-Jun (Slate) — This morning’s Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was bad news masking even worse news. The economy added 69,000 jobs in May, far below the consensus expectation of economic forecasters. And the consensus expectation wasn’t even particularly optimistic. Few thought we could repeat the 200,000-plus jobs per month that [...]
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