by Kris Sayce on April 2, 2009
Despite the doom and gloom in the mainstream media about the lower than expected retail sales numbers, it is actually a good sign. In the short term anyway, but…
In the long term it could be disastrous. I’ll get to the reasons for that in a moment, but first a look at the numbers.
Whichever way you look at it, it was a big fall. Seasonally adjusted retail sales in February 2009, were 6% lower than the same period last year. And that’s a big difference.
As for the comparison between February and January this year, the drop was even more significant. Seasonally adjusted, retail sales declined by 2% in February against January, but in real dollar terms, the fall was a whopping 12.9%.
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by MoneyMorning on April 2, 2009
London Gold Market Report
from Adrian Ash
07:20 EST, Weds 1 April
THE SPOT PRICE of physical gold rose in London trade early Wednesday, while Asian stock markets caught up with Tuesday’s US gains but European shares slipped back.
Government debt – set to swell $3 trillion worldwide in 2009 on the back of stimulus spending – held flat, keeping the yield offered by 10-year US Treasury bonds below 2.70% per annum.
Both the Japanese Yen and US Dollar ticked lower on the currency markets. Crude oil fell further, dropping below $49 per barrel.
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by MoneyMorning on April 1, 2009
London Gold Market Report
from Adrian Ash
09:25 EST, Tues 31 March
THE SPOT PRICE of gold bullion held inside a $10 range early Tuesday in London, heading into March’s close at $922 an ounce as world stock markets rose and the US Dollar have back half of its recent gains.
For the three months starting Jan. 1st, the Gold Price was on track for a 4.7% gain.
The MSCI index of global equities meantime headed for its best monthly rise since the Dot.Com Crash bottomed in Oct. 2002, but it still gave its worst first-quarter performance since 2001.
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by Kris Sayce on March 31, 2009
We wrote a couple of weeks ago that Australia is perhaps in an enviable position. That thanks to our abundance of natural resources and our close proximity to Asia, the country could emerge from the global financial shenanigans in reasonably good order.
There were only a couple of minor little things that could stop that from happening.
One of those was if Australia pursued the same stimulatory (or inflationary, take your pick) path as the US and UK. Well, it looks as though the deal has been well and truly done.
The stimulus packages in December and February were bad news for the economy and specifically bad news for private enterprise. But they were still small enough that it wasn’t too late to turn back.
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by MoneyMorning on March 31, 2009
London Gold Market Report
from Adrian Ash
08:30 EST, Mon 30 March
THE PRICE OF GOLD fell hard Monday lunchtime in London, dropping nearly 2% against the US Dollar to hit an 8-session low as world stock markets tumbled and the “risk averse” US Dollar and Japanese Yen both rose on the forex market.
Crude oil fell hard towards $50 per barrel – down 7% from last week’s four-month high – while government bonds rose sharply but stayed on track for their worst Jan. to March performance since 1996.
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