China reverses another policy and starts new buying of U.S. Treasuries again
China’s decision to end a strict yuan-dollar peg is getting all the headlines today—even though the likely appreciation of the yuan versus the dollar is in the vicinity of 3% or so in 2010. That’s hardly a game changer. But the bigger China-U.S. news dates back a few...Brazil raises interest rates as emerging economies step up their fight against inflation
Brazil’s central bank, Banco Central do Brazil, raised interest rates as expected yesterday, April 27. But the bank also did the unexpected. The increase in the benchmark Selic rate to 9.5% from 8.75% was more than most economists and analysts had expected. 30 of the...The renminbi moves closer to climbing against the dollar
It looks like the fix is in. The governments in Beijing and Washington look like they’re figured out a formula that will lead, sooner rather than later, to an end to the renminbi/dollar peg and the appreciation of China’s currency versus the dollar. Sooner, I’d say,...Want to see the U.S. dollar's future? Watch the fall of the pound
Short-term politics trump long-term economics. That’s the message in the beating administered to the pound yesterday. The implications for the United States are rather depressing. The pound got killed yesterday (March 1), falling almost four cents against the U.S....The dollar's up so everything else is down: What else isn't new?
Looking for an explanation for the rout in emerging market stocks and commodities? Blame it on the U.S. dollar. Oh, the original decline in the prices of those assets started in a different quarter with worries that government moves to cut bank lending and to tighten...The next financial crisis has a name and it's the United Kingdom
It’s one thing when it’s Greece or Portugal. A credit downgrade or warning for those two countries isn’t exactly headline news for most investors. For most of our portfolios these are peripheral markets. Ireland in trouble too? Yawn. Don’t own any Irish stocks. Italy?...Is Japan betting its future on a new weak yen policy?
Add Japan to the list of country’s counting on a weak currency to dig their economies out of a hole. On his first day in office new Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan lost no time in saying that he’d like a weaker yen. The Japanese currency is already down 9% from...
10 stocks for the next 10 years from a portfolio up 58% in its first year
Buy and hold isn’t dead, but its DNA sure could use a bit of genetic engineering. Buy and hold was never intended as buy and forget, but a great bull market run like the one that stretched from 1982 to 2000 made it seem like all an investor had to do was buy and then...Will rising state taxes sink the recovery in 2010?
The taxman cometh. That’s not only going to be individually painful in 2010 but the collective hit to consumers could be enough to stall the economic recovery. 2010, though is the short-term. The International Monetary Fund, in a burst of pre-holiday cheer, warned on...Inflation or deflation danger ahead? The markets say, Yes, but not which
Call it the great inflation vs. deflation battle. On the one side, the U.S. TIPS market. In the last few months demand for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities from investors worried about a resurgence of inflation has reduced supplies of the bonds at Wall Street...A falling dollar is driving stocks higher
The dollar keeps falling. And stocks keep climbing. The U.S. currency dropped to $1.46092 to the euro on September 10. It hasn’t been this low since December 2008. And even though it’s down 13% since it peaked in March, the dollar has a way to go before it finds...Flight from the U.S. dollar is pumping up Asian stock markets
You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to know where the money is going. It’s elementary. Investors are taking money out of the United States, which they see as lagging the global economic recovery, and putting it into Asia, which they see as leading the global...Gold rallies on the U.S. dollar's plunge.
Gold is making another run at breaking above and staying above $1000 an ounce. And I think this time the price is likely to stick. Even though gold is up 13% in 2009, I think the precious metal could tack on another 10% before it takes a breather. Gold has tried to...What do the Paris sewers, my lost luggage, and the end of Moorish Spain have in common?
Henry David Thoreau had a talent that I’ve never mastered. He could stand in his bean field at Walden Pond, bend over putting his head down near his knees, and see the world not just upside-down but differently. He could actually see things from a new intellectual...The world's greatest currency? Canada's Loonie gets my vote. And soon some of my money.
Not the yen, or the euro or the reminbi. Sure as shootin’ not the U.S. Dollar or the pound. Yep, it’s the Loonie, Canada’s dollar with the ghostly-voiced diving bird on it, that gets my vote as the world’s greatest currency. And not just at the...Update PepsiCo PEP
It’s still the same old story, a song of… Wait. That’s a different story. This one is about the way that a strong dollar has cut revenue and earnings in the second quarter now being reported for the big international consumer companies such as...Inflation is coming no doubt but later than you'd think
To make money off inflation you need to get both the direction and the timing right. Get the direction wrong—buy gold, on a bet that inflation is climbing when inflation is actually falling, for example—and you lose money. Get the timing wrong—buy gold, again on a bet...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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