Gold trading is a sign of many things – safe havens and risk aversion are typically among the top reasons. Therefore, with the Greek deal signed today – why did Gold move up? Traders believe that investors are not sure the deal will work – some accused the EU of “kicking the can down the [...]
This week Xi Jinping is busy tromping through the wilds of Iowa like some kind of purported Presidential candidate. Maybe he has heard that Iowa starts the process and thinks this might be a good way to cement his front runner status back home. More likely this is part and parcel of a more general [...]
The battle drags on and Europe continues to teeter on the brink. Every day it seems that a new wrinkle here or an adjustment there will yield the breakthrough desired and the whole of the Eurozone can go about its business. Then something falls through or someone throws a fit and the whole effort looks [...]
In an interview conducted with Unilever CEO Paul Polman by Gulf News, he said that he agreed with the assessment by the IMF that the world’s economy was in a “danger zone”. As the head of Unilever, a key Fast Moving Consumer Goods manufacturer (FMCG), it is one of the first to feel the[This content [...]
Continuing on something that appears to be a trend of late, the province of Guangdong, Hong Kong was hit by a shallow 4.2 magnitude quake last night. This is a bit surprising, but the quake was considered[This content is for MEMBERS ONLY. Please Subscribe to continue.]
Headlines today across the financial news sources highlighted the number of foreclosures increasing as banks clear delinquent accounts and the number of households now shifting over to renting over owning their homes. Our focus here is not on the trend of renting – but on the impact of growing rental business on the business community [...]
US retail sales for January were a bit lower than expected – rising only .4%. Analysts had expected retail sales to increase by .7% in the month. Some of this could have been because of a lack of cold winter weather. Whereas winter blasts can slow retail sales in the fall peak shopping season (keeping [...]
The initial claims for unemployment benefits has fallen to a level that is generally perceived to mean sustained growth is now possible. It is pretty obvious but bears repeating that until the new layoffs end it is pretty hard to gain ground on unemployment as every set of job gains have to take into consideration [...]
One component of the business inventory report that we tend to watch closely is the St. Louis Fed’s Business Inventory to Sales Ratio. Largely as expected, businesses let inventories fall slightly in December (highly predictable); the index came in at 1.26 after being fixed at 1.27 from August through November of 2011. As you look [...]
Two different accounts of a geological event from last night have affected areas near Tokyo. Workers at a Sony facility reported that the quakes were very strong and there could have been as many as three. The US Geological Survey is reporting the 6.0 that most media outlets have picked up, but sources at the [...]
