Insidious impetus....

[aussiebear]

A green start to the week for the Antipodes. The Kiwis have an +0.4% gain and the Aussies +0.3% with the latter getting a boost from IT +1.3% and Energy +0.7%. Gold is the only down sector, -0.5%.

 

 

 

 

[aussiebear]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=asia

[aussiebear]

 

 

http://money.cnn.com/markets/morning_call/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.kitco.com

 

 

 

http://www.kitconet.com/webcharts/base_metals.html

 

Energy futures

[aussiebear]

 

 

Found in a Singapore restroom.

[Jimi]

Your mangled English things are really funny.

[aussiebear]

Your mangled English things are really funny.

 

Glad you enjoy them..

[aussiebear]

 

 

Looks like the green might be over in the short term. All Ords followed Asia down to close -0.7% with every sector in the red except IT which closed flat. REITS -1.3% had the biggest fall followed by Gold -1.2%.

 

Over in Asia indices are currently China -1.2%, Honkers -0.9%, India -0.6% and Nikkers flat.

 

 

On to UK/Europe:

 

Footsie

 

 

 

DAX

 

 

 

CAC 40

 

[shorty]

U.S. fraudexes all red....the crash has begun!

fresh new bear market lows dead ahead

1/3 of Dow 30 likely to be fullzeroed before this Greatest Depression is over

households are broke and busted, with no real hope, only cruel false hope

[fxfox]

GBP gets it with the shaft boot this morning.

[swordfish]

mambo #5 original:

 

a la lehman hahahaha

http://macro-man.blogspot.com/2010/03/repo-105.html

[aussiebear]

EU Ministers Weigh Greek Rescue, Seek to Avoid Paying

 

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- European finance ministers will work on still-secret plans to help Greece overcome its debt crisis today, while counting on the country’s belt-tightening steps to make a bailout unnecessary.

 

Investors doubted that Greece will tame Europe’s largest deficit on its own, and that contributed to pushing down German bonds last week amid concern that Europe’s largest economy will bear the bulk of the costs of a future rescue package.

 

Ten-year German bond yields rose to a two-week high of 3.18 percent on March 11 partly on concern Germany will have to lead a bailout, estimated by the Sunday Telegraph at 25 billion euros or more. The yield fell 2 basis points today to 3.14 percent. Greek bonds rallied on expectations of European aid, with 10- year yields falling 7 basis points to 6.14 percent, the lowest since March 8.

[aussiebear]

European Payrolls Drop for Sixth Quarter, Led by Manufacturing

 

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- European employment fell for a sixth quarter in the three months through December as manufacturers and builders continued to cut jobs.

 

Payrolls in the 16-member euro region dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent from the third quarter, when they declined 0.5 percent, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today. From a year earlier, payrolls declined 2 percent.

[aussiebear]

Soak the pensioners

 

"For the private sector, too, inflation would be a mixed blessing. Take Britain, which might seem a likely candidate for inflation: its government sets the central bank’s inflation target and it has issued lots of long-term bonds (see left-hand chart). Alongside a rapid build-up of debt by some households there has been an increase in cash deposits by others (see right-hand chart). Using inflation to transfer wealth from savers to debtors may help boost spending. But there are limits to how much you can do this in a country such as Britain (or Ireland or Spain), where both saving and mortgages are linked to short-term interest rates. Inflation would over time reduce the real burden of debt but would raise interest costs more quickly. Nor would it be politically popular: savers tend to be older and the old vote more often."

 

 

 

http://www.economist.com/business-finance/economics-focus/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15663312

[Jetlag]

Very good read

Is China's Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America?

The long-simmering clash between the world's two great powers is coming to a head, with dangerous implications for the international system.

China has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7442926/Is-Chinas-Politburo-spoiling-for-a-showdown-with-America.html

 

The article writer sounds like a warmonger compared to most of the comments that actually bring insight on the delicate US/China balance.

[swordfish]

I dont like Krugman, but he is right

Taking On China

 

Published: March 14, 2010

 

Tensions are rising over Chinese economic policy, and rightly so: China’s policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, undervalued has become a significant drag on global economic recovery. Something must be done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/opinion/15krugman.html