Here are some views from around the world that I find interesting …
There are 361 commodity funds with $98 billion in assets as of Feb. 28, compared with 345 funds with $80 billion at the end of 2007, James Proudlock, commodity product head for Europe, Middle East and Asia at JPMorgan Securities Ltd., [...]
From the monthly archives:
March 2008
Recession in U.S. Sows Slow-Growth Economy, Weak Dollar, Faster Inflation The U.S. may pay a steep price to free itself of its economic and financial travails: bigger government, faster inflation and a poorer country.
Oil, Gold Decline as Dollar Rallies; Wheat, Corn Rise on Lower Stockpiles Crude oil and gold extended declines as the [...]
CIT Group is having a rough day, with the stock down roughly 39% at last check. What’s going on? CIT is a company that does a lot of corporate finance — big-ticket equipment leasing to aerospace and rail customers, trade finance, student lending, and vendor finance. It also has a book of home loans [...]
We got some timely data on the economy today … data that suggest the economy is struggling. A few details:
* Initial jobless claims filings jumped to 378,000 in the most recent week from 356,000 a week earlier. That’s the highest reading yet for this cycle. If you exclude the weeks that followed Hurricane Katrina [...]
The latest National Association of Home Builders index was just released. Here’s the skinny on the numbers:
* The overall index remained unchanged at 20 in March, in line with economists’ forecasts. That’s up from the record low of 18, set in December, but far below the March 2007 level of 36.
* Among the [...]
We just got a look at home construction activity in February. The devil is really in the details here, so allow me to explain:
* Overall housing starts came in hotter than expected — 1.065 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. That was above the 995,000 units that the markets were looking [...]
The stock market seems to be on the Slip ‘n’ Slide of Doom, but select commodities are another story. Take a look at these charts …
Fed Takes Broad Action to Avert Financial Crisis The Federal Reserve took dramatic action on multiple fronts last night to avert a crisis of the global financial system, backing the acquisition of wounded investment firm Bear Stearns and increasing the flow of money to other banks squeezed for credit.
XX This Washington Post story [...]
On Wednesday, a contact (who shall remain nameless) at one of my favorite small-cap silver miners sent me the latest update full of good news on his company. I sent back a brief note that said:
“Nice, but it doesn’t answer the question that is running around my mind: “How much dynamite am I going to [...]
