Daily Markets - Financial News And Opinions

Another Trade Re-Write: U.S. Consumers, American Companies Slammed With New Steel Taxes
4 Factors That Influence Metals ETFs
It Won’t Be Long
The Case For A Secular Bull Market In Precious Metals
Crude Oil Price Hits Ceiling As Hedge Funds Attack The Euro
Chile, No Cause To Tremor.
Suddenly Seeing Double
The Enthusiasm Gap
Singapore Stock Market Update For Friday 26 February

Another Trade Re-Write: U.S. Consumers, American Companies Slammed With New Steel Taxes

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 06:01 PM PST

Business Insider: “U.S. Steel Unions Score American Consumers and Steel-Using Companies Dealt Yet Another Huge Victory Loss As China They Are Slammed With New Steel Tariffs Taxes”

One has to envy pity the insignificant amount of pull U.S. steel workers consumers and steel-using companies have. The majority of U.S.-China trade agitation is caused by imposes signifcant costs on this one relatively tiny huge part of the U.S. economy.

From China Daily:

“The United States … [visit site to read more]

4 Factors That Influence Metals ETFs

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 05:01 PM PST

Metal prices and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been on a roller coaster ride lately. Regardless of performance, stories about the dollar, China’s demand and homebuilding reports have put metals firmly on center stage.

Don Dion for The Street notes that several factors play into performance of industrial and base metals:

Speed and extraction of the metal in the production and mining process.
Individual, company or sovereign inventory levels; low levels stoke demand, high levels … [visit site to read more]

It Won’t Be Long

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 04:16 PM PST

Amid mounting concerns about the deteriorating state of public finances, a growing number of countries — including Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Lithuania — are weighing increases in the retirement age.
With that in mind, I reckon it won’t be long before we see a chorus of politicians and policymakers joining the likes of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker, Deficit Reduction Commission Co-Chairmen Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, and Newsweek … [visit site to read more]

The Case For A Secular Bull Market In Precious Metals

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 04:01 PM PST

The world is currently in the eye of an economic hurricane. The leading edge of the storm, which made landfall in the second quarter of 2008, raged until the first quarter of 2009, and nearly demolished the world’s financial system. By sand-bagging with trillions of freshly-printed paper currencies, fudging accounting rules, subsidizing key financial houses and markets, and calming the masses with half-baked rhetoric, a worldwide collapse was averted.

But the calm is deceptive.

Because of … [visit site to read more]

Crude Oil Price Hits Ceiling As Hedge Funds Attack The Euro

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 02:01 PM PST

Crude oil broke through the $80 a barrel ceiling repeatedly during the week but kept falling back as hedge funds placed big bets on the Euro’s decline.

The fiscal drama in Greece held global markets hostage much of the week as worries about the impact of the Greek crisis on the euro outweighed comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke about continued low interest rates in the U.S., pushing the euro down against the dollar and damping crude prices.

The euro recovered some … [visit site to read more]

Chile, No Cause To Tremor.

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 01:50 PM PST

The devastation of wide areas within Chile may give investors pause. The Bolsa de Commercio de Santiago will likely expect some selling pressure as the country sorts out the damage from the powerful earthquake Saturday. As the market has been one of the best performers in thew world over the past year, this expected pullback may give investors an opportunity to selectively enter and wait for this resilient country to come back.

Fortunately, Chile has positive investing attributes such as … [visit site to read more]

Suddenly Seeing Double

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 01:01 PM PST

(Image source: Neatorama)
Although U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has assured us otherwise –

The risk of a “double-dip” recession is “much lower” now, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said [earlier this month].
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Geithner said that with the recent ongoing economic growth, a second recession has become less likely.
“We have much, much lower risk of that today than at any time over the last 12 months or so,” Geithner said. “Again just think of where … [visit site to read more]

The Enthusiasm Gap

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 11:27 AM PST

I had dinner the other night with a Democratic pollster who told me Dems are heading toward next fall's mid-term elections with a serious enthusiasm gap: The Republican base is fired up. The Dem base is packing up.

The Dem base is lethargic because congressional Democrats continue to compromise on everything the Dem base cares about. For a year now it's been nothing but compromises, watered-down ideas, weakened provisions, wider loopholes, softened regulations. Health care went from what … [visit site to read more]