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  • Veteran's Day

    * The China good feeling dissipates... * Currencies lose their edge... * Fannie Mae needs more! * Silver manipulation? ** Veteran's Day Good day... And a Terrific Tuesday to you! A Veteran's Day Tuesday! This is a Banking and Federal Holiday today, so the bricks and mortar banks are closed, and there will be no mail delivery, and of course your friendly neighborhood Government worker gets the day off. I'm here, in the saddle, writing the Pfennig like it's a regular work day, and the boys and girls will begin to gather in about 2 1/2 hours from now. We'll get all caught up, return some calls and head home today. Veteran's Day... I thought I would begin today with a snippet of a Veteran's Day poem by Jared Jenkins......
  • U.S. Payrolls Plunge!

    * Job losses begin to accelerate... * Currencies inch higher... * News of the weird... * China announces a stimulus plan! ** U.S. Payrolls Plunge! Good day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! The weekend was great, as I got to spend it with my kids at the Missouri Tigers football game on Saturday. It was a cold one, but a great game, and fun time all day and night. Well... We might as well get right into this... I'm sure you heard that the Jobs Jamboree was awful on Friday. UGH! Jobs are dropping like the temperatures outside, and there doesn't seem to be anything to stop them from dropping either! For the record... October's jobs losses were worse than expected (-200K) and came in at -240K... OUCH! But the real kicker, something the mass media might not have covered, was found in the September revision... Recall that September's Jobs data showed a negative -159K... Well, that number was revised to -284K! Double OUCH!...
  • Heading Towards Zero...

    * Fed cuts rates 50 BPS! * Currencies rally Big! * 3rd QTR GDP to go negative? * I.O.U.S.A. ** Heading Towards Zero... Good day... And a Tub Thumpin' Thursday to you! It certainly was a Tub Thumpin' Wednesday for the currencies, foreign stocks, commodities, and the Philadelphia Phillies! This by no means that the deep dense fog that has hung over the markets for 3 months has lifted for good... It did, however, lift for one day, and what a day it was! Oh, and the Fed did indeedly do cut their Fed Funds rate to 1%, which works out great since Fed Funds had been trading at 1% anyway! I had a reported from Dow Jones call me a few minutes after the rate cut and ask me my opinion on what the dollar was doing, which at the time was rallying back a bit... I said it looked like a classic case of buy the rumor sell the fact, that enough speculators were pushing the dollar lower ahead of the rate cut in hopes that a larger cut would be made. That, however, was not the case, and the dollar rallied... But only for about 20 minutes, and then it took a rid on the slippery slope, with the euro pushing to the 1.29 handle as I left for the day....
  • A Currency Bounce...

    * U.S. stocks soar! * Currencies rally! * Consumer Confidence at an all-time low! * Getting off the bench! ** A Currency Bounce... Good day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! The fall chill has really set in here as witnessed by my need to throw on a jacket and my Missouri Tigers baseball cap each morning! When you are basically bald like me, the cold air is not a friend to you, thus the need for a baseball cap from now until late spring! Well... The trading theme remained in place yesterday, but this time it was reversed. For those of you new to class, or any of you who have been playing horse hooky, the trading theme that has gripped the markets since August is: The deeper, darker, and more dangerous the U.S. economy and financial meltdown, including the credit market's locked status, the dollar gets bought... If there is any sign of light to all this mess, the dollar gets sold, for whenever the markets get their minds off the mess, they are reminded of awful fundamentals for the dollar....
  • Senate Passes The Bailout Package!

    * Euro falls to 1-year low.... * Bailing out foreign investors? * O'Neill has a better plan... * ISM collapses! But the dollar rallies... ** Senate Passes The Bailout Package! Good day... And a Tub Thumpin' Thursday to you! Rocktober started off with a bang for the dollar, as the green/peachback continued to gain VS the euro and other currencies, pushing the euro to a one-year low VS the dollar. We all sat here and shook our heads in disbelief yesterday, as the U.S. ISM Index (manufacturing) collapsed in September, but the dollar rallied anyway. The ISM Index fell from 49 to 43.5, the lowest print since Rocktober 2001, which happened to be near the end of the 2001 recession and right after the awful period following 9/11. So... To me... This really paints the recession picture clear and bright for all to see... So, why did the dollar rally with this albatross around its neck?...
  • Another Government Bailout!

    * Fannie & Freddie news... * Jobs Jamboree very disappointing! * Risk Taking back on the board! * Troubles brewing in China? ** Another Government Bailout! Good day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! We had some historic economic news over the weekend as the Gov't has decided to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae... When I heard the news, I made sure I would check on the currencies later in the day when the Asian markets opened. At first, it was all dollar negative news, and the euro was flying high to near the 1.44 handle... So... I went to bed thinking that the markets would be a shambles this morning when I got to work, etc. etc. But, that's not the case, as I turned on the currency screens I saw the euro had lost all that ground it had gained and is back to looking sickly around 1.42 again. In fact, I just looked over, and the single unit has given up the 1.42 handle and is trading below... I'm searching and searching for news on this strong dollar move, and can't seem to find anything... So, I'll go on with the normal fun, and see if something pops up later as I go along......
  • Central bank intervention is the reason...

    * Central Bank intervention is the reason... * Busy data week... * Australia's central bank to mirror the BOE?... * China to slow appreciation ... ** Central bank intervention is the reason... Good day... I know most of you opened the Pfennig up this morning hoping to get a blast of Chuck's witty writing style. Well the airlines arranged for Chuck to stay in San Francisco a little longer, so you'll have to wait another day. The currency markets continued to get hammered by the US$ on Friday with the dollar index climbing all the way back above 76, a level we haven't seen since mid February. The dollar did sell off a bit in early European trading, but it has started to climb again as I write. Several readers sent me an excellent opinion piece by James Turk which appeared on GoldMoney's website. Mr. Turk points to central bank intervention as a major reason for the recent dollar strength. The article agrees with what I was saying last week; that the dollar has no fundamental reason to be rallying. The reports and news out of the US have not been favorable to the greenback, and the twin deficits in the US continue to soar out of control. I mentioned that the recent moves of the dollar smacked of intervention, as the dollar only wanted to move in one direction, ignoring any data which would typically send it back down. Turk points to some data which backs up this intervention theory....
  • A War Of Words...

    * Undynamic duo sound off! * The dollar rebounds! * Inflation expectations? * BOC to cut rates today......
  • More Bad Data For The U.S. Economy

    * Softer CPI? * Foreclosures on the rise... * Just wishing on a star... * Jim Rogers on a Wednesday!...
  • Back to the Days of Volcker...

    * Waiting on a 100 bps move... * Fed plays Whack a Mole... * Carry trade reverses... * China raises reserve ratios......