Gold drop was not that bad IT'S time for gold investors to get a grip. The so-called big fall last week was, first, nothing of the sort and, second, was more a reflection of panic at the trading desks rather than from the gold consumer.The accompanying graph shows that there was a much greater plunge by the yellow metal two years ago. The graph uses the spot price for comparative purposes, which is why the recent high is shown at $US1002.95 an ounce rather than the April contract, which hit $US1033.90. The spot price's fall from its high on Monday was of the order of 8.3 per cent. Bad enough. But in the four weeks to June 14, 2006, bullion's spot price fell 21.7 per cent. There was another, lesser, retreat in the following September and then almost a year going sideways. And then look what happened: it bolted.
Nobody Wants Silver So Badly, You Can't Buy Any It's just like pro rasslin', maw. He's up ... he's down ... he's been thrown completely out of the ring and landed in the laps of New York's governor and his ... is that his wife? What's this? Silver is down yet another dollar today, after being down over a buck and a half yesterday? So, the stock market must be up a gazillion points, eh? Nope. Then, the dollar - they must have struck the world's biggest gusher on the White House lawn? Nope. But the dollar is up - way up. Will it stay up? Nope.
Truckers ‘going broke’ and threatening to strike What started as a small, online grassroots effort now appears to have the potential for something bigger. Dan Little, the owner/operator of a livestock hauling company in Carrollton, Mo., estimated Tuesday that at least 1,000 other truckers from across the United States have committed so far to joining him in a strike on April 1. Although none of the truckers interviewed Tuesday at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, Walcott, which is just off Interstate 80 west of Davenport, has heard of the intended strike, some said they would shut down, too. Weldon Kinnison, a Virginia trucker who was hauling soft drink from Indiana to Denver, heard about the plans for a strike for the first time Tuesday while stopping at Walcott. "I’m an owner/operator with the American Truckers Association," he said. "I’d park my truck for a week with the cattle haulers.
Bank of America may write down $6.5 billion Bank of America Corp. could tally a $6.5 billion provision in the first quarter to cover potential losses in its home equity and mortgage portfolios, Punk Ziegel and Co. analyst Richard Bove was quoted as saying by the Bloomberg news agency. All the same, the bank will still report a profit when it releases its next quarterly results April 21, Bove was reported to say Saturday. The analyst also wrote that he doesn't foresee an economic slide that would create the need for Bank of America's record reserve buildup, citing the change in the value of the dollar and steps by the Federal Reserve as likely to ease the credit crisis, the report said.
Home resales up first time in seven months Boosted by a record decline in prices, the U.S. housing market showed signs of stability in February, with sales of existing home rising modestly for the first time in seven months, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. Resales of U.S. homes and condos rose 2.9% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.03 million, ahead of the 4.85 million pace expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. It's the strongest sales pace since October. Sales are down 23.8% compared with a year ago. Inventories of unsold homes fell 3% to 4.03 million, representing a 9.6-month supply at the February sales pace. Inventories are not seasonally adjusted, but a decline from January to February is unusual.
Fed's rescue halted a derivatives Chernobyl When the Federal Reserve stepped in to save Bear Stearns, most people had no idea what was at stake, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard We may never know for sure whether the Federal Reserve's rescue of Bear Stearns averted a seizure of the $516 trillion derivatives system, the ultimate Chernobyl for global finance. "If the Fed had not stepped in, we would have had pandemonium," said James Melcher, president of the New York hedge fund Balestra Capital. "There was the risk of a total meltdown at the beginning of last week. I don't think most people have any idea how bad this chain could have been, and I am still not sure the Fed can maintain the solvency of the US banking system."
Bear Stearns to axe 8,000 staff More than 8,000 staff will face the axe at Bear Stearns worldwide once the stricken US investment bank is acquired by JP Morgan next month, as fears mount that the credit crunch could keep downward pressure on share prices throughout 2008. Wall Street analysts believe well over half of Bear Stearns's employees will be made redundant, with around 600 jobs at risk in London, where the company employs 1,350 people. JP Morgan declined to comment. So far, the credit crunch has seen relatively modest falls on the US and UK stock markets, where the Dow Jones (see graph) and FTSE 100 have declined by about 15 per cent since their high point in 2007 - more gently, so far, than during previous crises.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Archived Page Link
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSS
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/quotes_7a.gif)