http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices

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










http://www.kitco.com

Energy futures

Currencies/Au/Ag

A steady decline in the works today. All Ords -0.7% and Materials is leading the decline, -1.3%. Not a green sector in sight; Utilties is down the least, -0.2%.

Miners are despondent: BHP -1.4%, RIO -0.1% and in the golds, Newcrest -1.1% with Newmont's slightly green, +0.2%.

Oils going in different directions: Woodside -2.2% and Santos +1%.

Hmmmm, bullish or bearish?


[attachmentid=85978]

All Ords limped downward for the rest of the day finishing -0.8%. Materials had the biggest drop, -1.8% followed by Energy -1.3%. Property Trusts was the only green sector, +0.2%.

Most the miners saw steep drops: BHP -2%, RIO -0.5%, Newcrest -2% and Newmont -0.2%.

A similar scene in the oils: Woodside -1.8% and Santos +0.1%.

Asia mostly in the red: Nikkers -1.1%, Sth Korea -1%, Honkers and Singers -0.4%. China still heading up, +1.1%.

Over to UK/Europe:







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

Dollar Slumps to Record Low Versus Euro on Bear Stearns Losses

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell to a record low against the euro and dropped versus the yen after Bear Stearns Cos. reported hedge fund losses, fueling speculation investors will spurn U.S. assets as the economy slows.

The yen also rose against the euro, British pound and New Zealand dollar as investors scaled back carry trades, where they buy higher-yielding securities with money borrowed in Japan. Financial industry losses caused by subprime mortgage defaults may be addressed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke when he testifies to Congress today.

Russian Annual June Industrial Production Accelerates to 10.9%

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russian industrial production grew an annual 10.9 percent in June, the fastest pace in two-and-a-half years, led by steam turbines, tractor-trailers and television sets.

Growth accelerated from 6.7 percent in the previous month, the Moscow-based Federal Statistics Service said in an e-mailed statement today. The median forecast of 16 economists was for 6.6 percent. Output grew 12.5 percent in November of 2004.

The government of Russia, the world's biggest energy exporter, is seeking to diversify its economy to become less dependent on revenue from oil and natural gas sales. The government aims to double the size of Russia's economy, the world's 10th biggest, by 2020.

scaled back carry trades

Last time they did that everything tanked right? Especially commodities.

Dollar is imploding well as the housing then for outsiders in few years time it may be a good buy... How much does pay in taxes and what other charges one has to pay to be a housing bagholder...

Just unbelievable what's happening over there real estate-wise. I read housingbubbleblog.com every day and the news just gets steadily worse. Yet don't hear a whisper of it here and in fact I heard some RE guru on the radio saying Oz should be more into 100% loans like the US, can hardly believe someone could be so clueless as to the global situation, especially someone in the biz. Fully expecting a current affairs setup like Four Corners to do a programme on US subprime sometime in the next six months and that'll be the first the general populace will have heard of it. There is an undercurrent of foreclosures here too but it's more of a nagging toothache rather than a full on abscess...

Link to Bloomberg Article

U.K. Natural Gas Declines as Forecasts Show Supplies May Rise

By Paul Dobson

July 18 (Bloomberg)

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Just posted the Bellwethers Update in the WSE Pro. Sure looks like the party's just about over.

The usual suspects, CAT, MMM, and UTX, the lowest cap, highest price stocks in the Dow have been carrying the ball lately. That's what the pigmen use to paint the Dow at the end of the move.

what a farce.

They done that a few months back and the rest of the market just joined in.

Not according to the NYSE summation index, it hasn't come anywhere close to recouping the losses in April and May

Except that now the vast majority have either hit, or are within a point or so of their 13 week and 6 month cycle cmaps. The opposite of when they were coming off the lows.

What a farce. The market should be down 300 points.

Yields are falling too. I suppose they need to lower rates to make more funds available for LBOs. That's enough for me for today.

Don't fergit IBM.

Of course, it has bucketloads of resistance b/w 110-120 from 99-01, so would be no surprise if the boner rally off the 06 lows stalls in this area. IBM now has pretty good support in the 98-100 zone. If that fails, the next stop would be the high-80s.

Delicious Bear Claws ---China and WSJ

You are not going to read anything meaningful in WSJ about China. WSJ target audience is bullish on China. Most large corporations are either eying China as a source of cheap imports they can resell at obscene profits, or insatiable market for their exports--- Mr. Walton meet Mr. Sergei Brin. Or meet Jimmy Rogers who still hasn't learned how to stop deceiving everyone whether its stocks, commodities or China.

Most US corporations like Chinese tycoons willingly exploit current situation to their advantage. The fact that China is going to bury itself under a foot of coal soot or devour every endangered species is of no current relevance to them.

Don't look to China to solve its own problems or find cure for cancer, but you should not have any problems finding "bears claws", viewed as potent aphrodisiac, in any Chinese eatery.

It's scamweek. Not uncommon to get a strong move opposite of whatever happened leading into this week. So watch da numbers and tune out da newsnoize.

Imagine 1540 will be stick-saved. But i'm watching 1532. If that gives way, the crooks had better hold 1520ish or the floodgates open.

And on the Nazzcrack, 2632ish remains the level of lore. That's still over 2% lower right now.

Here comes the cash! And on a Bernanke testimony day - who'd have guessed?!
Added $7.25b today against no expirations!
What's interesting is that this sets up $21.25b expiring tomorrow. Any guesses how they'll handle that?

DJ Fed Accepts $7.25 Bln In Overnight RPs

Type of transaction: Overnight RPs
Total accepted: $7.25 Bln
Total submitted: $24.7 Bln

Agency Collateral Operation
Total accepted: $2.586 Bln
Total submitted: $6.3 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 5.22%
Weighted Average: 5.23%
High-rate submitted: 5.23%
Low-rate submitted: 5.18%

Treasury Collateral Operation
Total accepted: $3.606 Bln
Total submitted: $10.55 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 5.1%
Weighted Average: 5.12%
High-rate submitted: 5.12%
Low-rate submitted: 5.06%

Mortgage-Backed Collateral Operations
Total accepted: $1.058 Bln
Total submitted: $7.85 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 5.24%
Weighted Average: 5.25%
High-rate submitted: 5.25%
Low-rate submitted: 5.23%

(Data was provided by the New York Federal Reserve Bank).

"Pump it up until you can feel it,
Pump it up when you don't really need it."

---Elvis Costello

=DJ JPMorgan CEO: May Have To Up Reserves To Cover Bridge Loans

By David Enrich
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), one of the top financers
of so-called bridge loans in leveraged buyouts, is comfortable with the risks
involved with such lending but may have to beef up its reserves as investors
shy away from financing more deals.

"We try to underwrite each loan individually such that if we end up owning a
loan, we don't feel terrible," JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said
Wednesday on a conference call to discuss the bank's second-quarter earnings.

When JPMorgan ends up having to hold onto a bridge loan - a scenario known
as a "hung bridge" - "we won't like it, but we will be OK," Dimon said. "We
may have to put up some reserves against it." In the second quarter, JPMorgan
boosted its reserves in its investment bank to $164 million from $63 million
in the first quarter and a $62 million reserve release a year earlier.

Dimon said there's currently "a little freeze in the marketplace as risky
assets get repriced, which in my opinion is a healthy thing." Indeed, as
investors grow more risk-averse, a number of recent high-yield bond sales to
finance LBOs have encountered trouble.

I feel alot safer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wait isn't this a multi billion dollar industry or perhaps a trillion dollar industry?

Pity these markets aren't a dog visiting Michael Vick's house....

Despite the lousy news noise out of tech the weakest index is again the BKX.

Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy
Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy
Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy
Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy

---KID ROCK

Uhhh....



Maybe it is?

Better save those Dow 14,000 party hats. Steve Saville adjusted the Dow for inflation using John Williams inflations numbers (i.e. kept the methodology consistent over the decades). Looks like the Dow gains are not much more than a rising sea of money supply.

http://www.kitco.com/ind/saville/jul172007.html

Dollar's in trouble

LEE WEE, I guess all money flowing to the safest country on earth EWP?

How about a CPI adjusted savings accounts with the Banks??

*DJ Bernanke: Fed To Propose Banning Some Bk Practices By Yr-End


(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

Of course we can do without honesty and integrity

Still think the chart is going to head south. Problem is, don't know how much further north it goes prior to the turn. Will tread lightly but watch like a hawk.

The EWP (Spain iShares) is 38% finagler by weight.

The EFA (developed world etf) is 28% finagler.

The non-US etf with the biggest finagler weight is EWA (Australia) with 48%. Odd, considering that most folks see Oz as a commode play. Yet it's the finaglers who rule da roost on the etf.

Since 2000, you would have done better with a bank account.

Why not accomplish that thru a short dollar fund?

YEah, but IBM is a megacap. Much tougher to move it 5 points than it is the 3 pipsqueaks

Uranium is HOT this morning....

[attachmentid=85980]

how does that humpty dumpty saying go ,,,,,

It's Bullish?

[attachmentid=85981]

Humpy Dumpty sat on a wall he had climbed claiming it was made of worry.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, when the fiat in which the worry wall was denominated broke multidecade support.
All the Fed's henchmen & all the Fed's thugs.
Couldn't save Humpty from Michael Vick's pug.

LeeWhee.... Did you sell half your position in techs yet?...

Sold half my position in the semi etf at close yestiddy. It basically hit my i/t target.

Still see a handful of pct left in the techs, but will not linger long if Nard 2632 gives way.

I expected weakness this week, at least a day or two of it. Watching key levels carefully right now. The violation of 1540 oughta moisten some panties, but the real GMTFO levels are still beneath us.

Right now, IMO, any selloff that doesn't violate Nard 2632ish is for entertainment porpoises only.

Another reason I suspect this selloff is scamweek-esque is because the finaglers are once again taking the brunt. Yet this BSC newsnoize has been tipped for the week of 7/16 since mid-June, so it's not exactly a surprise in terms of either timing or content. So this feels like an obligatory selloff to me.

But I could be wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

Ms. Russell keeps losing that bar of soap in the bathtub....

[attachmentid=85982]

*DJ Overstock.com Says Wins Ruling In Prime Brokerage Litigation


(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

seems like the Pigmen's world is a little bit harder today

The real question is,

will the pants drop below the ankles?

Shows you why chasing a "breakout" on the Thurs before scamweek is not always the bestest ideer.

Funny how moves in the yen seem to mirror moves in the gold schlocks...or is it the udder way around?

Either way, looks like da yen (using FXY as proxy) is about to make a strong directional move. But will it be up or down? The goldbugs hope it's up. But the chart looks to be painting a bearish wedge in a downtrend.

So either the FXY bursts up and out of the wedge and likely takes the gold schlocks with it, or it breaks down hard out of the wedge. Looks like the move could happen any day now since the pattern is narrowing and the yen-san has been rallying since June 21.

Maybe Friday or Monday?

If such a move comes, the goldbuggers are likely to be either handsomely rewarded or kicked in the teeth. Only Hank "Pat" Paulson knows for sure.