[aussiebear]

Warning sign found at Nagoya Castle.

[aussiebear]

http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices

[aussiebear]

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










http://www.kitco.com




http://www.kitconet....ase_metals.html

Energy futures

[aussiebear]

A surge on open but we'll see how it goes for the rest of the day. All Ords +0.8% with Energy leading, +2.3% and a cluster of sectors at +0.8%, viz Financials, Miners and Materials.

There's several red sectors, Healthcare -1.1%, REITS and Utilities -0.5%.

[aussiebear]

Not an inspiring day. Like yesterday there was a strong start followed by selling. All Ords closed +0.1% with Energy clear leader, +1.9% and Miners/Materials both +0.7%. REITS sank the most, -2% with Utilities next, -1.2%.

Asia is performing strongly: China +4%, Honkers +1.9%, India +1.8% and Nikkers +1.8%.


On to UK/Europe:

Footsie




DAX




CAC 40

[aussiebear]

China Current Account Surplus Declines in First Half

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- China’s current-account surplus fell in the six months to June from a year earlier, the first decline in five years, as the global economic slowdown battered exports.

The surplus in the broadest measure of trade shrank 32 percent to $130 billion, according to preliminary figures posted today on the Web site of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the nation’s top currency regulator. China’s capital and financial account, which tracks investment flows, showed a surplus of $33.1 billion, down 54 percent from last year.

[aussiebear]

Bank of China to ‘Cherry Pick’ Borrowers in U.K. Mortgage Push

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s third-largest commercial lender, will seek to “cherry-pick” prime borrowers as it expands into real-estate lending in the U.K., according to the head of the bank’s British retail unit.

“Before the financial crisis you didn’t have a choice, you couldn’t cherry-pick the good customers,” Xixu Sun, chief retail banking officer at Bank of China U.K. Ltd., said in an interview in London. “Now you have that choice, because there’s a drought in terms of mortgage loans provided by banks.”

The Chinese state-owned bank is looking to win so-called prime customers with good credit histories who are struggling to get mortgages from Britain’s traditional real estate lenders, Sun said. U.K. mortgage approvals plunged to about 48,000 in June, less than half the 108,000-a-month average between 2003 and 2007, according to Bank of England figures.

[Jetlag]

aussiebear, on Aug 20 2009, 04:40 AM, said:

Bank of China to ‘Cherry Pick’ Borrowers in U.K. Mortgage Push

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s third-largest commercial lender, will seek to “cherry-pick” prime borrowers as it expands into real-estate lending in the U.K., according to the head of the bank’s British retail unit.

“Before the financial crisis you didn’t have a choice, you couldn’t cherry-pick the good customers,” Xixu Sun, chief retail banking officer at Bank of China U.K. Ltd., said in an interview in London. “Now you have that choice, because there’s a drought in terms of mortgage loans provided by banks.”

The Chinese state-owned bank is looking to win so-called prime customers with good credit histories who are struggling to get mortgages from Britain’s traditional real estate lenders, Sun said. U.K. mortgage approvals plunged to about 48,000 in June, less than half the 108,000-a-month average between 2003 and 2007, according to Bank of England figures.

It's going to be interesting watching western country's reaction to China moving up the value chain. They started as a low cost supplier that destroyed/are destroying industries all over the US and the EU that just can't compete with the social dumping and shortcuts (like using a cheap toxic product to sweeten baby milk instead of the more expensive "real stuff") that are allowed in China. I'm completely appalled that even today in the EU it's not mandatory to have the country of origin stated on every kind of product on the market. The consumer can't make the choice if an importer can put his EU address on a product without stating where it was made which tricks the uneducated consumer into thinking it was made in the EU since the only info on the label points to an EU company.

But now as they move up the ladder and start eating the bread and butter of the plutocrats I bet the reaction will be different.

[Rationalize]

Jetlag, on Aug 20 2009, 07:13 PM, said:

It's going to be interesting watching western country's reaction to China moving up the value chain. They started as a low cost supplier that destroyed/are destroying industries all over the US and the EU that just can't compete with the social dumping and shortcuts (like using a cheap toxic product to sweeten baby milk instead of the more expensive "real stuff") that are allowed in China. I'm completely appalled that even today in the EU it's not mandatory to have the country of origin stated on every kind of product on the market. The consumer can't make the choice if an importer can put his EU address on a product without stating where it was made which tricks the uneducated consumer into thinking it was made in the EU since the only info on the label points to an EU company.

But now as they move up the ladder and start eating the bread and butter of the plutocrats I bet the reaction will be different.

A bit like Japan in the 1980s, but bigger, dirtier, and some say, more corruptible.

Just wait until the yuan appreciates, and they’re buying up RE, and businesses all over the western world...

* Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

[Jetlag]

[Jetlag]

Rationalize, on Aug 20 2009, 05:20 AM, said:

A bit like Japan in the 1980s, but bigger, dirtier, and some say, more corruptible.

Just wait until the yuan appreciates, and they’re buying up RE, and businesses all over the western world...

Only little big difference was that Japan bought at the top of the RE bubble and China although they made some investments at the top (like blackshone), they seem to be buying RE and finangles at the or at least a bottom. They're a fornicateing juggernaut, they move slowly but have time on their side, it's like an attrition strategy of sorts.


Hey blackshone made a hell of a recovery


Gotta keep the landlord happy with his inbestments I guess...

[swordfish]

new HOT game - become a FED chairman and make your own crisis!
http://www.frbsf.org...ities/chairman/

[Jetlag]

" China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. may post a sevenfold surge in second-quarter profit after the government increased fuel prices and the nation’s economic recovery spurred a rebound in demand.

Net income at Asia’s biggest refiner, also known as Sinopec, may rise to 15.8 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) from 2.2 billion yuan a year earlier, according to the median of four analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg News. Profit at PetroChina Co., the world’s most valuable company and the country’s second- largest refiner, may climb 28 percent to 31.54 billion yuan. "

http://www.bloomberg...id=afov3fd1bkRU

[Jetlag]

Bears lose bladder control on every pullback while the steers quickly stampede away from their positions

Are you BULLISH?
AAII members are:
(as of 8/19/2009)
Bullish: 34.07%
Neutral: 25.93%
Bearish: 40.00%

Not extreme levels, but it's the first negative spread between Bulls and Bears since July.

[Jetlag]

quanta, on Aug 19 2009, 08:02 PM, said:

WowSA!!!

From the article:

For the first time since the 1920s the capacity-to-pay principle is being made the explicit legal basis for international debt service. The amount to be paid is to be limited to a specific proportion of the growth in Iceland’s GDP (on the assumption that this can indeed be converted into export earnings). After Iceland recovers, the payment that the Treasury guarantees for Britain for the period 2017-2023 will be limited to no more than 4 per cent of the growth of GDP since 2008, plus another 2 per cent for the Dutch. If there is no growth in GDP, there will be no debt service. This means that if creditors take punitive actions whose effect is to strangle Iceland’s economy, they won’t get paid.

Iceland promises to be merely the first sovereign nation to lead the pendulum swing away from an ostensibly “real economy” ideology of free markets to an awareness that in practice, this rhetoric turns out to be a junk economics favorable to banks and global creditors.


I expect this to be the portent of things to come...

shorty, on Aug 19 2009, 09:37 PM, said:

435,102 vehicles plowed under already

they're destroying real wealth, on purpose

and the general populace has not the intellectual capacity to comprehend

more pain and suffering is Guaranteed

very sad to watch, besides being yet another poorly run program

Dealers pay the rebates out of pocket, then must wait to be reimbursed by the government. But administrative snags and heavy paperwork have created a backlog of unpaid claims
Schienberg said the group's dealers have been repaid for only about 2 percent of the clunkers deals they've made so far.

Nice ways of increasing debt without issuing more debt !