http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices

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










http://www.kitco.com

Energy futures

Currencies/Au/Ag

Down today but with none of the drama of the US action. All Ords -1.2% led by Materials, -1.9% followed by Property Trusts -1.7%. There's actually a couple of green sectors, Healthcare +0.8% and IT +0.1%.

Big miners taking a hit: BHP -2.2% and RIO -2.5%. Golds also down although the volume is low: Newcrest -1.5%, Newmont -1.1% and Lihir -0.3%.

Oils not doing too badly: Woodside -0.4%, Santos +1.6% and Caltex +0.8%.

German Investor Confidence Decline to 15-Year Low

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Investor confidence in Germany dropped more than economists forecast in December, reaching the lowest level in almost 15 years, as rising credit costs dimmed the outlook for economic growth.

The Mannheim-based ZEW Center for European Economic Research said its index of investor and analyst expectations fell to minus 37.2, the lowest since January 1993, from minus 32.5 last month. Economists expected a decline to minus 34.5, the median of 41 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Australian Consumer Confidence Rose 1.8%

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Australian consumer confidence rose for the first month in three after the central bank left interest rates unchanged and voters elected a new government.

The sentiment index climbed 1.8 percent this month from November to a seasonally adjusted 112.5, according to a Westpac Banking Corp. and Melbourne Institute survey of 1,400 people released today in Sydney.

All Ords moved up off the lows but the result was still a fairly dismal -0.9%. Materials and Property Trusts were equal downside leaders, -1.7% and there were four green sectors of which Healthcare had the most gain, +0.5%.

The big miners went down and stayed there: BHP -2.3% and RIO -3.1%. Golds perked up: Newcrest flat, Newmont -0.9%, Lihir +2.4%.

Oils did a roller coaster: Woodside +0.3%, Santos +1.6% and Caltex +0.3%.

Asian bourses recovering after an initial drop: China and Honkers -2.3%, Nikkers -0.6%.


Over to UK/Europe:







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

Posted this on M2M... seems like it may bear repeating... not sure of the implications but it reeks of a potential stick-save attempt tomorrow.

Throw all yer hard-earned money into quality AAA cash-cow dividend-paying blue-chip Safe and Guaranteed Chinese stock market investment securities at these bargain prices?

Hurry! Don't miss out!

Well, I don't know what the implications are either, but did spend some time reading some about Central Bank Operations.

Bottom line, the big CB's, the FED, ECB, BOJ and BOE have different rules about which banks come to the Open Market Operations Party, what is acceptable collateral, which currencies they accept, how they settle accounts and on and on.

The market may panic/interpret this as desperation/etc by the Fed because it is "new" for the Fed.

But it's not "new" in the world of Central Banks.

Think might just be the Fed opening up "the system" beyond the limits of the Gang of 21. Other Central Banks are already more flexible about this type of thing than the Fed.

The new plan is to extend, expand and bend over backwards to take crap on to the Fed's books.


Hey, it worked in 1999, so it should work fine now, right ? right ? Bueller ?




(just one little problem. In '99 it was just a year-end funding issue. This time it's more of a solvency issue)

Doc, Someone refers to me as a moran and now I can't post ? What is up with that ?!

It's not only the markets experiencing a wild ride

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/7139910.stm

A taxi driver in Germany was left shaken and stirred after handing his keys over to seven-times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher.

Time to review the Fed's Borker/Dealer list, now down to just 20

BNP Paribas Securities Corp.
Banc of America Securities LLC
Barclays Capital Inc.
Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Countrywide Securities Corporation
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Daiwa Securities America Inc.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities LLC.
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Greenwich Capital Markets, Inc.
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.
J. P. Morgan Securities Inc.
Lehman Brothers Inc.
Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc.
Mizuho Securities USA Inc.
Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated
UBS Securities LLC.

By my quick count 8 of the 20 are subsidiaries of foreign banks.

And so it begins.

Reports of Fed liquidity boost yank U.K. shares off lows

U.S. stock futures up on hopes Fed isn't finished

Big time reversal in credit risk indicators... 1m LIBOR dwn to 5.10%... 2yr swap spread down to 94bps.

Market likey unveiled plan so far.

A new category in the Fed RP reports: "Sh*t-paper Collateral"?

I think this plan is going to be enough to solve the year-end funding component of the current problem, but it falls short of solving the central issue..

In a fiat world anything is possible...... again once confidence and perception are lost nothing matters anymore..until then let the games continue

Looks like Bendover's Jewelry and Loan is now open for business.

No followthru in Yen, and Gold held the line and perking back up, and actually looking ready rock-n-roll to the upside now...

May have been one-day wonder to the downside in the indexes yesterday...or...we could be about to decouple finally....

Anyway, am long the Gold, and wait n see on the indexes....

Gold could be about to go ballistic here.....

Who got taken out?

*DJ Central Bank Forex Swap Lines Total $24 Bln For ECB, SNB

*DJ First New Fed Auction Will Be $20 Bln 28-Day Funds Monday


*DJ Fed Aims To Boost Liquidity With New Auction Facility

*DJ 2nd Fed Term Auction Will Be $20 Bln Dec 20, 35-Day Funds

*DJ Two Other Fed Term Auctions Scheduled For Jan 14, 28

*DJ Fed, BOE, ECB, SNB Set Up Forex Swap Lines For Six Months

Down from what?

futures just spiked up again...any reason?


Q's up over a buck

holding for SPY 152.50, then trailing stop. on close will move back to sds for ride down to fill the gap and probably more. then wash, rinse, repeat.

*DJ BOE Will Accept Wider Range Of Collateral At Repo


*DJ BOE To Increase Amount Of 3-Month Funds On Offer Over Yr-End

Can you say MORAL HAZARD?

Will not appear on any of the Fed's books. WIll be offshored to a Caribbean entity. Why should htye be any different than others of the bankers.

doc, javascript delivered full scrren ad HP printer that never closes is blocking viewing of the pages on page change or refresh. have to wait for 20-30 secs to have "your page is loading" change to "skipad(1)" to turn it off then the page loads. help!!

*DJ Swiss SNB Acting With BoE, ECB, Fed, Bank Of Canada

*DJ Swiss SNB: Action Aims At Easing Pressure In Funding Mkts

From Fed's site........

Effective November 30, 2007, Nomura Securities International, Inc. has withdrawn its name from the list of primary dealers.

The problem is the set of morals in the administration is different that what most would consider. Thus, in their definition there is no moral hazard except if they did not protect their friends.

The new linkages between the US and European CBs smells of globalization.

Now that they're chaining themselves together, if one goes down, they all do?

Wow... central banks unite

holy crap futures went hogwild

2yr swap spreads now down 20bps.. from 107 to 87

wonder twin powers activate. form of..........

Suddenly I feel much more comfortable stroking my physical precious metals. While there may be no inflation in the future, I feel better with the idea that physical gold is a store of value with what the central banks are doing. We shall see.

Huge pop in futures. Ben trying t screw the shorts again?

Big anti-dollar & Gold moves also.

Another wild day at the casino.

One good thing about the central banks taking on the toxic waste is that likely they do not have to mark anything to market since it is collateral and not a owned asset.

The power of accounting and the double entry system.

So has Bernanke passed his first big test?

Yesterday he looked like an unresponsive idiot asleep at the wheel.

Today he's unvieled as a f'ing genius.

Co-ordinated world wide liquidity attack.

F'ing brilliant, truely.

Who's going to fade Bernanke now?

If they take out yesterdays' highs in da indexes, would no be a good idea to be short....

The rules of da game may have just been changed....

Whether you like da rules or not, got to play by 'em to survive.....

what a bear trap......

Now...if this pops fails................

could not have said it any better....thanks K WAVE

Yen getting hammered...say bye bye to yesterday's pivot low

They don't call him Helicopter Ben fer nuthin'

Will the Fed write the checks to pay for all the mowing of the lawns, upkeep and taxes on all the foreclosed homes that are at the bottom of the toxic waste food chain? Will they take on the responsibility for all the defaulted properties?

Pity the poor municipalities.

.....