Demand for gold surges despite rising prices This price rise has raised no heckles, on the contrary the market is as glittering as ever with both buyers and sellers scrambling to make maximum out of the prevailing situation. Yes, we are talking about the bullion market where gold prices have zoomed by about 35 per cent in a shot span of five months. But such a sharp jump in prices astonishingly have not had any dent in physical buying of the metal. Jewellers say age-old notion of high prices deterring sales have been proven wrong in the case of gold. They said high prices are attracting even more buyers as they see gold as the safest investment options with attractive returns.
"It" Might Be a Signal for Higher Gold Prices The government media complex has put a full-court press attack on the precious metals and commodities markets in the past month. Everywhere you turn in the main-stream media lately—CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox and the like—you hear about the death of the gold and the commodities bull markets. But when you look at the price of gold versus the value of the dollar, another truth becomes evident...The amount of disinformation, outright lies, and complete non-sense being spewed to the public by these manipulative vermin gives you a sense on just how desperate things have become. Not to worry though. Every time the media has started a campaign like this in the past seven years, it's usually been a sign that precious metals are ready to make another move higher.
Tiger economies are snapping at US heels China and India and are moving toward becoming the biggest economies in the world: with 2,4-billion people, or 40% of the world's population and annual GDP growth rates of between 8% and 10%, experts say that they could one day overtake the United States. Professor Pieter Bottelier, of the Centre for Strategic International Studies, says: "If these two countries continue to grow at the current rate, they will overtake America, although that probably won't happen for a number of decades." The countries are very different politically: India is the world's biggest democracy, but China is under tight communist government control. Economically, China has had a head start. Bill Emmott, former editor of the Economist, says in his book Rivals that India's time has yet to come; to date it has been constrained by a poor infrastructure, social divisions, a caste system and mind-boggling poverty. But it is fast making up for lost time and no doubt Emmott wouldn't disagree with Steven Roach at US investment bank Morgan Stanley that "India is on the cusp of something big".
BofA may lower Countrywide bid to $2/share or below Bank of America Corp. is highly likely to negotiate a sharply lower price for Countrywide Financial Corp. , and should just walk away from the deal altogether, an analyst said Monday. Bank of America could face $20 billion to $30 billion in write-downs of Countrywide's mortgage loans after it closes its acquisition of the troubled mortgage lender, FBR Capital Markets analyst Paul J. Miller Jr. told clients in a research note. "BAC should completely walk away from the CFC deal, as CFC's loan portfolio will prove a drag on earnings and could force BAC to raise additional capital," Miller wrote. Even if Bank of America sticks with the deal, it's likely that it will cut its offer "down to the $0 to $2 level," and force Countrywide's bondholders to absorb the remainder of any write-downs, the analyst said.
Buffett Says Credit Crisis Ebbs for Wall Street Firms Warren Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said the global credit crunch has eased for bankers, and the Federal Reserve probably averted more failures by helping to rescue Bear Stearns Cos. ``The worst of the crisis in Wall Street is over,'' Buffett said today on Bloomberg Television. ``In terms of people with individual mortgages, there's a lot of pain left to come.'' Buffett was interviewed before the Omaha, Nebraska-based company's annual meeting, attended by about 31,000 people. Buffett, the world's richest man according to Forbes magazine, said the Fed acted properly when it arranged a $2.4 billion buyout in March of New York-based Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The billionaire said he turned down the opportunity because he lacked enough capital and time to craft a solution. More failures and wider panic may have resulted if the regulators didn't halt the run on Bear Stearns, he said.
Fed `Rogue Operation' Spurs Further Bailout Calls A month after the Federal Reserve rescued Bear Stearns Cos. from bankruptcy, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke got an S.O.S. from Congress. There is ``a potential crisis in the student-loan market'' requiring ``similar bold action,'' Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and six other Democrats wrote Bernanke. They want the Fed to swap Treasury notes for bonds backed by student loans. In a separate letter, Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski and 31 House members said they want Bernanke to channel money directly to education-finance firms. Student loans are just the start. Former Fed officials and other Fed-watchers say that Bernanke's actions in saving Bear Stearns will expose the central bank to continuing pressure to use its $889 billion balance sheet to prop up companies or entire industries deemed important by politicians.
Oil Jumps $3 on US Economic Data, Iran, Nigeria Oil jumped more than $3 to over $119 a barrel on Monday on supply concerns from OPEC members Nigeria and Iran and as U.S. data eased worries about the health of the world's biggest economy. U.S. light, sweet crude gained was sharply higher, near the record $119.93 hit in April. That's got people putting money back in this market," said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois. Further support came from Iran's announcement on Monday it would not consider any incentives offered by world powers that would constrain its right to nuclear technology. The comments come just three days after major powers said they would make a new offer to convince the Islamic republic to halt its nuclear plans, a process which the West believes Tehran wants to master so that it can build nuclear weapons.
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