http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices

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










http://www.kitco.com

Energy futures

Currencies/Au/Ag

All Ords tried for a continuation of yesterday but it didn't last. The index -0.5% and interestingly it's Financials down the most, -2.7% followed by Healthcare -2.3%. IT is up a whopping +5.8% after a Computershare announcement with miners and Materials next, +1.3%.

The big miners up: BHP +1.7% and RIO +1.3%. In the golds, Newmont doing the dive, -4.6% but the others holding their own, Newcrest -0.9% and Lihir -1.1%. Juniors ignoring the gold price drop, flat to up.

Oils mixed: Woodside +1.9%, Santos -0.4% and Caltex -1.7%.

Nice presentation on the USD charts you post, Speakeasy. I look for it every session.

Australian Consumer Confidence Slumps to 15-Month Low

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's consumer confidence index turned negative in February for the first time in 15 months after the central bank raised interest rates to an 11-year high and share markets tumbled.

The sentiment index slid 5.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted 97.4 from 103.1 in January, according to a Westpac Banking Corp. and Melbourne Institute survey of 1,200 people released today in Sydney. A reading below 100 shows pessimists outnumber optimists.

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Commonwealth's Profit Growth Is Slowest in 3 Years

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, posted the slowest profit growth in more than three years as funding costs and provisions for bad debts increased.

Net income rose 8 percent to A$2.37 billion ($2.14 billion) in the six months ended Dec. 31 from a year ago, the Sydney-based company said in a statement. Earnings fell short of the A$2.5 billion median estimate of three analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

The shares fell to a 14-month low as lending profitability declined and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Norris said funding costs would remain high this year amid volatile debt markets. Australia's central bank is raising interest rates to cool inflation, increasing pressure on Commonwealth Bank's profit margins and pushing housing affordability to a record low.

Japan Wholesale Inflation Rises to Fastest Since 1981

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's wholesale prices rose at the fastest pace in a quarter-century, led by higher oil and wheat costs that are spurring inflation as the economy cools.

Producer prices climbed 3 percent in January from a year earlier, after a 2.6 percent gain in December, the Bank of Japan said in Tokyo today. The median estimate of 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for 2.8 percent.

Consumer prices rose the most in almost a decade in December, which combined with falling wages drove household sentiment to a four-year low. Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui said this month that surging energy and material costs are complicating interest-rate policy because they hurt income and economic growth as well as increase inflationary pressure.

U.K. January Inflation Quickens to Seven-Month High

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. inflation accelerated to a seven-month high in January as soaring gasoline and food costs blunted the impact of discounting by fashion stores.

Consumer prices climbed 2.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with 2.1 percent in December, the Office for National Statistics said today in London.

--------------

U.K. House Price Slump Deepens to Worst Since 1992

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. housing market slump deepened in January to the worst since the British economy emerged from its last recession in 1992, real-estate professionals said.

The number of residential property agents and surveyors saying prices fell exceeded those reporting gains by 54.7 percentage points, the most in 15 years, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said today. For London, the result matched the most since May 2003.

Banks have shown reluctance to pass on the effects of rate cuts to customers after more than $145 billion in writedowns and loan-losses worldwide. Lenders lowered the cost of mortgages for 95 percent of the price of a property, fixed for 24 months, by 0.08 percentage point in January, less than half the benchmark rate reduction the previous month, central bank data show.

Not a good look for All Ords today. The index finished -1% and most of that was due to the Financial sector which closed -4.7%. The three largest banks dived around 6% leaving them at 2005 levels. At the green end, IT did one of its volatile moves, +8.4%.

Miners took the middle path: BHP +1.2%, RIO +0.6%. Golds dipped into the red: Newcrest -0.1%, Newmont -7.4% and Lihir -0.5%. Juniors flat.

Oils slid a touch: Woodside +0.8%, Santos -1.1% and Caltex -2%.

Asia mostly up: India +2.8%, Honkers +1.9% and Nikkers +0.5%.


Over to UK/Europe:








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

nice comeabck of Gold, dipped a bit below the uptrend (from 849), now up almost 10 points.

It looks like that the correlation of EUR/JPY and the indeces becomes tighter and tighter, even Gold has a big correlation now. My guess is this is because of the subprime crisis. Can anyone give an (academical) explanation?

I mean, i trade what i see, but i would like to know why it is like it is.

Tanks in advance.

EURJPY just broke the downtrend. Bears better hope for a false break.

big fight at 157.00 now

Foxy,
I am glad you are back. I really like reading your commentary. Great charts too!!

pullback at first test of 157.00, maybe consilidation now, later test again. We will see.

Sorry to say: But you US stoolies miss most of the action, cause you sleep. Do it like me: Dont sleep, WAIT!

tanks TURK

gotta hopp out now and buy some food and other stuff.

Bank of England Indicates Scope For Rate Cuts Limited

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The Bank of England raised its inflation forecast and signaled policy makers may need to keep interest rates higher than markets currently predict.

Inflation will overshoot its 2 percent goal in two years and risks breaching the government's upper 3 percent limit before then, the central bank said in London today. The bank based its forecasts on market expectations for the benchmark interest rate to fall to 4.5 percent by the end of the year.

---------------

U.K. January Unemployment Falls to Lowest Since 1975

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. unemployment fell for a 16th month to a three-decade low in January as economic growth led companies to add workers.

Claims for jobless benefits dropped 10,800 from December to 794,600, the lowest since June 1975, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The drop was more than double the 5,000 median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 28 economists. The jobless rate stayed at 2.5 percent.

South African Retail Sales Drop for Second Month

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- South African retail sales fell for a second month in December, the first declines in almost seven years, after the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate for a fourth time.

Sales dropped an annual 0.5 percent, after declining a revised 0.2 percent in November, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said on its Web site today. Retail sales were expected to rise an annual 1.7 percent, according to the median estimate of four economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Long NQ from 1796...as long as we stay above 1800, will hold fur a bit....

What does this mean? Which currency is rising and which is falling? You need to draw a picture for me.

NQ is the Nasdaq futures? I don't know all the futures symbols unfortunately. I know GC, YG, SP, TY, CL, (Or is it LC?), and now YM. That's about it.

SRS all wound up...if the indexes do reverse back down and this clears 115, bears should take control....

First currency stated is the currency in multiples of the other, so 157 is 157 Yen per Euro

YM=DOW
ES=SP 500
NQ=NDX
ER2=RUT

YM right at yesterday's high..bears last stand before bullz rip them a new one

Dang - I bailed from my longs AAPL, GOOG & RIG yesterday afternoon when things started to look shaky. Glad I am not short FSLR. Shorts getting their ass handed to them on that one today.

right and when EUR/JPY goes from 157.00 to 157.50 it means that euro goes up and yen goes down.

EUR/JPY broke downtrend after it consolidated after first failed test to break downtrend. Trading at 157.35 right now.

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A wave of bonds sold by U.S. municipal borrowers with rates set through periodic auctions failed to attract enough buyers in recent days as banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. that run the bidding wouldn't commit their own capital to the debt.

Rates on $100 million of bonds sold by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with bidding run by Goldman, soared to 20 percent yesterday from 4.3 percent a week ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Presbyterian Healthcare in Albuquerque and New York state's Metropolitan Transportation Authority also had failures, officials said.

link

Another source of revenue cut off for IBs.

im long at 12352 since this morning. Can trade the Dow almost around the clock with my broker, they call it US30

EUR/JPY exploding.

If its a leading indicator, there is no chance that the indeces go lower today. Dow is gonna ramp thru 12450.

but of course their looms the question about the hen and the egg. Will the Dow be the hen or the egg? We will see.

AP
Energy Dept. to Monitor Refinery Outages
Thursday February 7, 10:16 am ET
By James Macpherson, Associated Press Writer
Dorgan: Energy Department to Monitor Planned Refinery Outages

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The federal Energy Department has agreed to monitor oil refinery outages, a move Sen. Byron Dorgan believes could help prevent simultaneous plant shutdowns leading to high fuel prices and tight supplies.

Dorgan, D-N.D, and energy officials said that last year as many as eight nationwide refinery outages -- most of which were planned for repairs or maintenance -- contributed to fuel shortages in North Dakota and elsewhere.

"We don't want to be in a situation where this happens again," Dorgan said.

Dick and George are winding down ops. No more gazillions for the refiners---back to pennies for crack spreads.

AH!!!

Now I get it. When the Euro rises against the Yen, it's bullish for US stocks.

Makes perfect sense.

But what about if the dollar also rises against the yen?

All I can say is, god help us and protect yourself..........

DJ Bush Welcomes US Senate Passage Of Surveillance Bill

WASHINGTON (AP)--U.S. President George W. Bush said Wednesday he is pleased
the Senate has passed new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls
and emails.

The president said the legislation is necessary to determine who terrorists
are talking to, what they are saying and what they are planning. He urged the
House to act promptly.

"The time for debate is over," said the president.

qqqq 5 hr cycle projection 44.45-.50

big 38 fibo in eurjpy at 157.66, served as resistance for now. Will the bears be saved by the old italian voo-ddoo priest?

Coca-Cola Profit Surges on Sales Pop
Wednesday February 13, 7:41 am ET
By Harry R. Weber, AP Business Writer
Coca-Cola Profit Surges on Double-Digit Sales Rise, Year-Ago Charge, Beats Expectations

ATLANTA (AP) -- The Coca-Cola Co., the world's biggest beverage maker, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit rose 79 percent on a double-digit increase in sales as it benefited from growth in key soft-drink brands and in its water, sports drink and orange juice categories.

The Atlanta-based company said it earned $1.21 billion, or 52 cents a share, for the three months ending Dec. 31, compared to a profit of $678 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier, when the company took a big impairment charge at its largest bottler.

Excluding one-time items, Coca-Cola said it earned $1.36 billion, or 58 cents a share, in the quarter, ahead of the 55 cents a share analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting.

Bloomberg is pumping this news all morning. What a company, they make acid, corn -syrup water with pumped in carbonation and sell filleted tap water. But, they are supposed to be recession proof? No way.

I see that they are dropping prices from $1.59 to $.99 for soda, which means that they can't make any money with skyrocketing cost of chemicals and corn syrup. In a recession they think that they will sell a lot of bottled tap water for $3?

spy 5 hr projection of 136.20 was hit. Double top on the chart with some negative divergences on 3 and 5 day cycle indicators, but no rollovers..
3 and 5 day cycle upside projections were hit yesterday. I think this is probably at least a sideways down phase in those cycles.

GDX is really in the brink of something bad here if shport at these levels doesn't hold.

again all the action in forex is in the YEN pairs.

dia 5 hr cycle projection was 124.75

I should confess you confused me. The bears are who short using SRS or those who short SRS itself?

does anyone hold me back from shorting Gold? For a daytrade of course.

CCJ rock'n!
34.76...

March 35 calls at 1.75 x 1.90...
Getting very close to my exit point.

Trade safe.

If SRS goes up, bears will be in control of the indexes=da SRS bullz

Seeing some big liftoffs here..FSLR up 34

resistance lines 1362 and 1367. 12490 and 12520. 44.49

NLR also

Bear gotta hope for 12,500 overthrow, uddderwise upside acceleration dead ahead..

Notably, EWZ, which has been leading, has not taken out yesterday's high

Looks like a nice breakout.

The 44.50 area on qqqq is really a big deal resistance wise. I can't even count how many lines pass through there.

Dow 12485 is also important. 4 lines pass through there.