Commodities Sell Off = Stock Market Sell Off?

by | 12 05 2011 | Blog

Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell the most it has in two months.  Ostensibly the sell off was because of the dramatic fall in commodities prices, including oil, gold and silver.  To me this is evidence of strange trading forces at work, rather than...

Germany’s Exports Hit All-Time High

by | 09 05 2011 | Blog

This morning Germany announced that its exports – the overwhelming driver of its economy – hit an all-time high in the month of March.  Specifically, the EU’s most powerful nation recorded $142 billion in exports.  This achievement was a full 7.3%...

U.S. Job Creation Soars

by | 06 05 2011 | Blog

Department of Labor calculations estimate that the United States’ job creation soared in the month of April.  Specifically it added a massive 244,000 jobs.  A broad swath of economists had expected only 185,000 jobs would be created.  Private Sector job creation...

Speculators Are Why Commodities Are So High

by | 05 05 2011 | Blog

New York’s COMEX exchange has upped by 84% the amount of money that must be on deposit by speculators in order for them to borrow money to buy silver futures.  This is just the latest rise in margin costs (i.e. borrowing costs) implemented by the COMEX since...

Jobless Claims Creep Up

by | 05 05 2011 | Blog

Jobless claims creeped up a whopping 43,000 last week to a total of 474,000 last week according to U.S. Department of Labor data.  This is the highest level of jobless claims since August, 2010.  Because the data can frequently be volatile folks generally look at the...