GM’s German Opel
Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold…….
It hit $1099/ounce today. Something powerful is going on with Gold. Gold appears to be leading the financials – and it is stating that “deflation” is over. There are many nay-sayers on Gold, but a quote from Mark Twain – and this one isn’t even funny, just true – tells it the best.
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other.”
Stocks were up a lot this morning, but fell back for only a moderate gain by the end – and caused by the FED announcement.
Bond interest rates are creeping up and are now at the recent sideways trend level. I would expect the FED to keep the rates down (as they just promised), so I do not anticipate a breakout of interest rates soon.
I guess you’ve seen gasoline creeping up in your community. It’s because oil is hovering around $80/barrel, and gasoline is tied to its coattails, except when the speculators come out to play.
The Dollar fell today against the Euro more than one cent. The Dollar’s inverse link to the stock market is still in tact as well as it’s inverse link to Gold (or is it the other way around??)
In the news today……
FED – holds rates at zero% – ho hum!!!!
GM wants German Opel – GM has done a U-turn on the Opel brand of auto built in Germany. It wants to inject $4.5B into Opel and modernize it and have a foothold in Europe. All this sounds very good from a business perspective IF the taxpayer weren’t controlling GM right now. If you remember, when GM went bankrupt, it split the company into two pieces – one to keep, and one to sell. Opel was in the “sell” bucket. So this U-turn must raise a lot of questions, but I don’t see anyone asking them.
- Will any US taxpayer money be put into Opel?
- How can we trust/believe/know that none of our taxpayer money will go into Opel?
- Will the German government be putting any money into Opel?
- How does this U-turn affect the initial bankruptcy in the first place?
- Why isn’t the taxpayer going to reap the money that GM would have received from an Opel sale?
- It just looks like the taxpayer is taking it in the shorts again – am I alone in this feeling?????
Mortgage applications rise – Mortgage applications increased 8.2% from a week ago led by a 14.5% jump in refinancing. The average rate for 30-year fixed mortgages declined to 4.97% from 5.02% the week before.
Tonight’s Dinner Conversation…..
There is an Asian Asset Bubble taking place right now. Hong Kong assets, for example, are jumping because of an infusion of $56B in recent investments.
Where is this money coming from? What if I said that I suspect that some US Banks are investing in this area of the world – would you believe me? I have no proof, but a lot of rumors right now. I will keep on top of this, of course.
My concern, and the one I raise to you, is how do we know if a US bank isn’t moving TARP funds out of the US and investing them in a hot market? Is Greed alive and well again – yes, of course. If a bank takes TARP money, and puts it in its right pocket, and takes a few billion out of its left pocket to invest in Asia, isn’t that the same thing as using TARP money????
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 9802 (up 30 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.55% (up 0.07%)
Euro – $1.4877
Gold – $1093 (up $9) – A NEW HIGH
Oil – $80.20 (up $0.60)
Gasoline – $2.01 (up $0.01)
