http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices

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










http://www.kitco.com

Energy futures

Currencies/Au/Ag

Whew, in the middle of a heat wave here; 41C expected today and 43C tomorrow...how's that snow going up north?

The market also heating up. All Ords +0.7% although sectors are a tad uneven. Metals and Mining is in the lead, +1.8% closely followed by Materials and Energy, +1.7%. Just like old times! There are a few reds of which Property Trusts is down the most, -0.5%.

The big miners are in full steam ahead mode: BHP +1.7% and RIO +1.9%. Golds are doing even better: Newcrest +2.8%, Newmont +0.5% and Lihir +2.6%.

Santos is leading in the oils, +2.9% and Woodside is not far behind, +2.5%. Caltex is letting the side down, -1%.

It was a bit of a raggedy sideways move after the initial burst. Energy slipped into the lead, +2.5% followed by Metals & Mining +1.8% and Materials +1.5%. Most other sectors had small gains with Property Trusts and IT at the red end, both -1.2%.

Miners continued to do well: BHP -1.4%, RIO -2.2% and in the golds, Newcrest +2.9%, Newmont +0.2%, Lihir +2%.

Oils took a starring role: Woodside +4%, Santos +3.7%. Caltex failed to gain traction, -1.1%.

Taiwan is the only major mover in Asia thus far, +1.8%, China +1%, Nikkers -0.5%, Honkers -0.3%.


Over to UK/Europe:








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

Japan's Housing Starts Slide 27%, Fifth Monthly Drop

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's housing starts fell for a fifth month in November, indicating that stricter rules for obtaining building permits may remain a drag on economic growth in the first quarter of 2008.

Ground broken on new homes and condominiums tumbled 27 percent from a year earlier after falling 35 percent in October, the Land Ministry said in Tokyo today.

``We don't expect a fully fledged recovery in housing starts at least until mid-2008,'' Takehiro Sato, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, said before the report was published. Sato said the decline could affect other sectors including the timber, furniture and cement industries.

Hong Kong's Nov. New Mortgages Rise to 10-Year High

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The value of new mortgages in Hong Kong rose 76 percent from a year ago to the most since July 1997, as economic growth and low interest rates fueled demand for loans.

Banks in Hong Kong approved HK$27.7 billion ($3.5 billion) worth of new mortgage loans in November, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Dec. 24. Locals have taken up more loans after the city's biggest banks cut interest rates three times in the first 11 months.

Kuwait Approves Law to Cut Tax on International Firms

Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait's parliament passed a law to reduce the tax burden on international companies for the first time in over half a century and to make profits garnered by foreign investors from trading in Kuwaiti stocks tax exempt.

Corporate tax on foreign companies will be reduced to 15 percent from as high as 55 percent, the state-owned Kuwait News Agency reported, citing parliamentary proceedings. The previous law taxing foreign companies' profits by as much as 55 percent dates back to 1953.

The emirate's new tax code will become law after it is signed by the Gulf state's ruler.

*DJ Military Official Says Pakistan's Bhutto Killed In Bombing

*DJ Advisor: Pakistan's Bhutto Shot In Neck, Chest During Attack

DJ UK To Adopt Euro On Military Bases In Cyprus - AFP

Interestingly, Bhutto's assassination comes at a convenient time before Musharraf can consolidate power in Pakistan.

NY Times article on her death is entirely negative. I guess the CFR is clinging on to Pervez like a dead fish.

3 and 5 day cycle indicators on the sell side in dia, spy and qqqq.

qqqq can confirm a turn by breaking 5 day cycle MA at 52.37 and 8 day at 52.19. Otherwise, trend still intact.

I inadvertently left the gold stock picks table out of the Precious Metals Report. That's now been corrected.

What is the CFR?

dow and spx 3 and 5 day cycle indicators have been on sell side since early yesterday. Dow needs to break 5 day cycle MA at 13482.56 and spx at 1488.02 as a start toward reversing the 5 day cycle up phase.

I'd guess, "Council on Foreign Relations."

*DJ Pakistan Police Tear Gas Protest After Bhutto Assasination-AFP

this is like throwing gasoline on an open fire

shit is going to hit the fan......

DJ Fed Accepts $10 Bln In Overnight RPs

Type of transaction: Overnight RPs
Total accepted: $10 Bln
Total submitted: $21.4 Bln

Agency Collateral Operation
Total accepted: $4.938 Bln
Total submitted: $10.25 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 4.32%
Weighted Average: 4.33%
High-rate submitted: 4.38%
Low-rate submitted: 4.2%

Treasury Collateral Operation
Total accepted: $5.062 Bln
Total submitted: $10.65 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 4.05%
Weighted Average: 4.05%
High-rate submitted: 4.08%
Low-rate submitted: 3.9%

Mortgage-Backed Collateral Operations
Total accepted: None
Total submitted: $500 Mln
Stop-Out Rate: N/A
Weighted Average: N/A
High-rate submitted: 4.4%
Low-rate submitted: 4.3%


DJ Fed Accepts $6 Bln In 14-Day RPs

Type of transaction: 14-Day RPs
Total accepted: $6 Bln
Total submitted: $60.5 Bln

Agency Collateral Operation
Total accepted: $3 Bln
Total submitted: $17.75 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 4.5%
Weighted Average: 4.5%
High-rate submitted: 4.5%
Low-rate submitted: 4.15%

Treasury Collateral Operation
Total accepted: $1 Bln
Total submitted: $8.7 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 3.85%
Weighted Average: 3.85%
High-rate submitted: 3.85%
Low-rate submitted: 3.36%

Mortgage-Backed Collateral Operations
Total accepted: $2 Bln
Total submitted: $34.05 Bln
Stop-Out Rate: 4.72%
Weighted Average: 4.72%
High-rate submitted: 4.72%
Low-rate submitted: 4.3%

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

Bought 300 PWE

Yeah. Wouldn't be surprised to see a wave of riots & blood-letting.
Place is the Modern Day tinderbox.
One of the themes of pre-WWI was an Ottoman Empire as "The Sick Man of Europe."
Other European Great Powers kept extending it loans to prop it up.
Pakistan is illin'.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/th...k/print/pk.html

agree.... the site forgot to mention they have nukes as well....

live coverage of bhutto.....

http://news.sky.com/skynews/livenewsevents

$2 billion net drain on the day. Looks like they eliminated the 7 day repo too.

I'd be kind of shocked if yesterday was the top.

Looks like i didn't miss much.

Momo stocks are all holding up.
GOOG, GS, AMZN, AAPL...all green!

*DJ Report: Loud Bang Heard In Moscow Shopping Center - AFP

Dog eat dog day.

GS expects bigger write downs in MER and C.

It isn't this guy right?

My ANF puts looking good...

Scalping into GS Feb 200 puts.

Sure feels dead around here.

I wonder if MER and C will retaliated in the coming weeks against GS.
I get this feeling it's GS vs everyone.

No demand for credit with the kind of collateral that the FED is requiring.

I wonder if GS is going to find any of their own or they really must be the smatest guys in the room. or the biggest criminals?

spx early 3 day cycle projection only 1488. 5 hr projection only 1489. However, could get interesting if this test fails. 5 day cycle MA now 1488.86, with lots of support lines between there and 1484, then air to the 8 day cycle MA @ 1478.43

dow 3 day and 5 hr cycle projection around 13450. 5 day cycle MA at 13488 is broken. support lines 13470-13440. 8 day cycle MA 13407.

qqqq 5 hr proj 52.24. 5 day cycle MA at 52.38. 8 day 52.21. Key support lines 52.29, then 52.

Played the last bounce to perfection.
Looking for this gap to fill.

Currently in a 3 week bear flag.

Oil at 52 week highs...might get the spike to 100 today.

14 day rate on MBS collateral was 4.72.

Gotta go for an hour or two. Later!

Midcaps leading the charge down???

[attachmentid=94081]

I get the sense GS is creating a lot of animosity between them and the rest of the street.

DJ Report: Bang In Moscow Shopping Center Firecracker - AFP


MOSCOW (AFP)--A loud bang heard in a popular shopping mall near Red Square
in Moscow Thursday came from a firecracker, Moscow's mayor Yury Luzhkov was
quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.



The Russians have alot to learn from the department of Homeland Security .....

Got this in my email, newyearcards2008.com, don't recognize the email address. When I open link it asks if I want to save and run newyearcard2008.exe. I said no. I am very suspicious, anyone else receive this?

The latest from i-tulip


Regardless of whatever value judgment you may put on it, it’s critical to understand what’s really been going on through the thick smoke of misleading and opaque rhetoric. Trade deficits such as the earth-shattering records the US has been ringing up represent a country that consumes more than it produces. It pays for that excess consumption with capital. Other countries send us things we wear out and burn up. We send them dollars. They send the dollars back and we send them our corporations (see also USA Fire Sale: 1st Meeting 2010).

As these dollars come back, economists all over the media crow about the capital coming into the US. On April 26, 2004, Barron’s ran a column by David Ranson doing just that, referring to a wave of foreign cash coming into the US as an "inflow of capital". It’s the exact opposite. Let's take the example of a farm family which consumes more than its land produces by selling off a few acres every year. Common sense tells us that the farmer is getting poorer, not richer. By Mr. Ranson's backward logic, we should focus on the money the farmer receives for his sales of capital and call it an "inflow of capital", and forget that the real capital is actually moving the other way.

When we net it all out, the United States is exchanging capital for consumer goods. Consumer goods come in, capital goes out. This problem is the result of an emphasis on taxation of production over consumption and the creation of credit in excess of savings. It is not a healthy balance and must be corrected if the United States is to maintain and grow its standard of living.

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.ph...23001#post23001

There are a lot of ways to skin these mortgage cats.

Out of Foreclosure, In Reverse

The WSJ (sub only, I'm afraid) had a piece yesterday on a process it never actually names--the "short refi" (related to the "short sale"). What makes these short refis--refinance transactions where the new loan is less than the balance due on the old loan, with the old lender agreeing to call the loan paid in full and write off the difference--so unusual is that the old loans are nasty high-rate subprime loans to old people, and the new loans are reverse mortgages.

The strategy worked recently for Gloria Forts, a 62-year-old retired federal worker in Forest Park, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. After refinancing her home in August 2006 with a $106,500 mortgage from Fremont Investment & Loan in Brea, Calif., Ms. Forts was facing monthly payments of $950.41. That consumed 70% of her monthly income from Social Security and a pension. Intending to start a new job, she found herself kept at home by diabetes complications and back surgery. In June, she sought help from the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.

There, she found William J. Brennan Jr., a veteran housing attorney who, over the past 18 months, has developed a sophisticated model for settling subprime debts with reverse mortgages. After Ms. Forts received a foreclosure warning in October, Mr. Brennan connected her with Genie McGee, a reverse-mortgage specialist with Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corp., an Irvine, Calif., unit of IndyMac Bancorp Inc. She determined that Ms. Forts would qualify for a reverse mortgage of about $61,000.
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/

that sounds like a good idea to me.

Tasting, tasting.

Negative retail stories are everywhere in the MSN, but the schlocks are still holding above their November lows. RLX has huge support @ 390/400 and it will take some major selling to break through this level. Should happen sometime in Q1 08.

Breadth is bad, nearly 3 to 1.

Leave it to "a veteran housing attorney" (aka Landshark) to figure out how to squeeze the last drops of blood out of the dessicated corpse of the 'Merican ho'moaner.

When I was in the People's Republic of Berkeley a few weeks ago, I noticed a huge banner on the WFC branch on University Avenue touting reverse mortgages. The megafees that go with these transactions are the banksters best hope of getting one last slurp from the mrotgouge trough.