Gold Forecast for 2008 In a December 2004 interview with the Wall Street Journal, I predicted $525 for gold's high in 2005. It hit that $525 level the following December. For 2006, once again in a Wall Street Journal interview, I predicted a "breakout year" for gold with a top price of $760. Its actual breakout high came earlier in the year than I had anticipated (in May) and a bit lower than I had predicted -- in the $730 range (intraday Comex). In January, 2007, when gold was trading in the $625 range, in a forecast published in a NewsGroup Market Update through our USAGOLD website, I made $715 my minimum upside target and suggested that gold could hit the $800 level, or go as high as $875 if tensions escalated in the Persian Gulf; or if the quid pro quo with China broke down; or if the new Congress proved as anti-market as advertised; or if we got some surprises. Gold hit $840 in November and is trading at the $810 level as this is written.
Dollar Heads for Second Annual Decline Against Euro on Fed Cuts The dollar traded at a two-week low against the euro, heading for a second annual decline, as investors raised bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again to bolster the slowing U.S. economy. The dollar traded at a two-week low versus the euro and yen, after weakening against 14 of the 16 most active currencies this year, as the Fed reduced borrowing costs three times to temper the worst housing slump in 16 years. A U.S. report today may show sales of existing homes held at the lowest since the National Association of Realtors began keeping records in 1999. ``Going into the end of the year, clearly markets have taken another bounce of dollar negativity on board,'' said Jeremy Stretch, senior market strategist in London at Rabobank Groep, the third-biggest Dutch bank. ``The slowdown in the U.S. economy is clearly going to happen.''
Your 'safe' money isn't so safe Did you abandon the roiling stock market for the security of a money market fund? Gulp -- the mortgage mess has probably put your investments there at risk, too. Investors are fleeing the volatility of the stock market at the year-end, according to industry data, and stashing the proceeds in supposedly nice, safe money market funds at the scorching rate of $18 billion per week. Yet investors might only be exiting one danger zone and entering another, as a close look at money market funds at major U.S. brokerages reveals that most are invested in the same sort of dubious paper that has rocked the financial world in the past six months. Although many money market funds have the word "cash" in their names -- leading investors to think that they are no more risky than a handful of paper money -- many are thinly veiled bets on the deteriorating mortgage market
Merrill negotiating another capital infusion Merrill Lynch & Co. was in talks this weekend with Chinese and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to raise more capital in a bid to stave off liquidity concerns following massive credit losses, British newspaper The Observer reported. The news surfaced after Merrill recently said it will raise up to $6.2 billion to be invested by Singapore-based investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. and U.S.-based money manager Davis Selected Advisers L.P. Merrill also said it is selling Merrill Lynch Capital, the firm's middle-market commercial finance business, to GE Capital. Chief Executive John Thain is trying to secure another infusion of foreign capital -- through selling stock or assets -- to shore up Merrill's balance sheet, The Observer reported, citing anonymous sources.
Top economist says America could plunge into recession Losses arising from America’s housing recession could triple over the next few years and they represent the greatest threat to growth in the United States, one of the world’s leading economists has told The Times. Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, predicted that there was a very real possibility that the US would be plunged into a Japan-style slump, with house prices declining for years. Professor Shiller, co-founder of the respected S&P Case/Shiller house-price index, said: "American real estate values have already lost around $1 trillion [£503 billion]. That could easily increase threefold over the next few years. This is a much bigger issue than sub-prime. We are talking trillions of dollars’ worth of losses." He said that US futures markets had priced in further declines in house prices in the short term, with contracts on the S&P Shiller index pointing to decreases of up to 14 per cent.
Recession or not, Middle America will continue to feel the pinch in 2008 The decline in the housing market that led to the squeeze on lending is widely expected to carry over into the new year – and it is not the only pressure on the US economy. A small 1950s bungalow in Stockton, California, is up for sale for $169,950. Sitting off a quiet road dotted with American flags, the Funston Avenue home has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a covered porch. It was built as part of President Truman’s Fair Deal, a federal promise to guarantee economic opportunity and housing for America’s servicemen returning from the war. Sixty years on, however, the American Dream has turned into a nightmare. The bungalow’s value has fallen by $110,000 in two years and the family who live in it have fallen so far behind with their rising mortgage repayments that they have been foreclosed by the bank.
From the sub-prime to the ridiculous: how $100bn vanished It began with low-income Americans being encouraged to borrow mortgages they couldn't afford. The economic butterfly effect would eventually cause deals worth billions of dollars to fall apart; the first run on a British bank in 140 years; some of the most powerful figures on Wall Street losing their jobs; wild gyrations on the markets; and dire warnings that the world is on the brink of recession. At the start of the year, stockmarkets were at six-year highs and £40bn worth of mergers and takeovers were awaiting completion. Private equity firms and hedge funds were gorging themselves on cheap money and a handful of secretive, hugely wealthy individuals were becoming increasingly influential. But it was the millions on more modest incomes who would ultimately shape the events of 2007.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Archived Page Link
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSS
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/quotes_7a.gif)