Showing posts with label EuroZone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EuroZone. Show all posts

Sunday, August 02, 2020

Headlines


‘Rigged election’ goes from Trump complaint to campaign strategy

CDC warns Congress of ‘significant public health consequences’ if schools don’t reopen

The never-ending Flynn case drags on

Diane Feinstein: China is ‘growing into a respectable nation’

Stephen Miller: Obama’s comments at Lewis funeral ‘totally disconnected from reality’

Coronavirus live updates: U.S. cases jump by 67,000, Sanofi, GSK nab $2.1 billion in vaccine deal

FBI audit finds 2 errors in 29 FISA applications — Carter Page’s alone had 17 omissions

Fauci: ‘I don’t think we need to go to lockdown again’

Eurozone economy shrinks by record 12.1 percent in second quarter

Earnings at halfway mark are much better than expected

Federal grand jury indicts Tenn. Dem senator who allegedly embezzled  $600k

Donald Tump suggests delaying 2020 election

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Headlines


North Korea denies that Kim sent Trump ‘a nice note’

Coronavirus live updates: Luxury cruise that begun before pandemic nears final port after 15 weeks at sea

Spain spraying cities ... Germany reopening stores ...

UK undercounted EU migrants by up to 55 percent

Poll: Majority fear coronavirus restrictions will be lifted too soon

Pence says faulty CDC coronavirus test kits were fixed in early February

US deaths nearing 40,000 ... Govs tell Trump: too soon ...

U.N. court can force China to answer for coronavirus

EU needs 500 billion for recovery, says eurozone bailout fund chief

More voters favor government taking a bigger role in the economy during coronavirus, survey says

Vaccine may never be developed, warns expert ...

S. Korea: Single digit rise in infections

Monday, June 08, 2015

The Next Bubble


Everyone loves to speculate about the next stock market bubble. Will it be the bio-tech industry? Will Greece lead the Euro zone economy down the toilet? Will the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank kick the stilts out from under the market when it raises interest rates this autumn? I think I may have the answer ... the Shanghai stock market seems the next possible tsunami that washes over our world's financial markets.

Shanghai Composite Index

As can be seen from the above chart, the Shanghai bourse has soared up over 59% on a year-to date basis and, over the last year, it is up a very frothy 153%. It is now sitting on its high of 5147 (up 2.2% today alone) with a current price-earnings ratio (P/E) of 22.9 and zero yield. Very recently it did suffer a one-day swoon of over 5% when the Chinese authorities raised margin requirements on stock-trading accounts. It has since recovered all this drop and then some.

Why is this market so bubbly? Given the very high P/E ratio and zero yield one can only conclude that this stock market has become a casino for the nouveau riche of China. I have heard that many brokerage firms' trading areas resemble horse-racing betting parlors ... with traders throwing all caution to the wind when following the latest hot tout.

When this market crashes ... and it eventually will ... will this affect other world stock markets? One can only speculate on this outcome ... but the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929 certainly did the same for other markets around the world. And I suspect that a Shanghai swan-dive might well do the same.

Afterward: An alert reader sent the following comment and chart relating to my above observations: "Your graph is a bit lame, I'd set the zero base on the chart and look back 10 years -- the run up to the global reset and what followed -- and volume. Like this one [below], excerpted from Google finance." 

I'm not sure that I am any more comfortable as a result of this wider vision ... does this mean that we're in for another "global reset" like in 2008?




Friday, November 30, 2012

The Sphinx



Just as the Obama administration stayed mute during the Iranian uprising in 2010 (see:New York Times Article) and, consequently, lost major leverage in its stated opposition to Iran’s developing nuclear weapons; it is again playing the silent Sphinx during the current uprising in Egypt where moderates and Coptic Christians are protesting the creation of another Iran-like caliphate there (see: Associated Press Article).  Contrast the White House's current silence with its megaphoning when the mobs were calling for former Egyptian President, Hosni Murabak's head.  Insiders (who seem to know)  are predicting that these newest protests will go nowhere and, before the Nile again floods in the Spring, Egypt will fade behind a radical-Islamic curtain. 

Although Administration apologists keep the narrative going that Mohammed Morsi, President of Egypt, really won’t effectively make the Muslim Brotherhood Egypt’s neo-Pharaohs, it is pretty clear to this author that our media are smoking hookahs … and, in very short order, Egypt will be even more despotic than it was under Murabak.  The only difference is that, now, Egypt will no longer be even a titular ally of the United States … and will be working diligently behind the scenes to destroy Israel.  This is clearly a foreign-policy catastrophe … and, to me, is another major blot on Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State (others … Syria, Benghazi, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, Israel, Mali, Russia, the Eurozone, etc.).  Yet, Hillary is as popular or more popular than ever … and is quite often predicted to be our next President.  Aargh!

Afterward: there are also rumors that, once this caliphate is established in Egypt, the Spinx will be blown up by the Muslim Brotherhood ... much like the historic huge standing Buddha was blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan a decade or so ago.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Skids the Oil


The price of oil has plummeted from a high of $110 per barrel in February to a current low of around $91 ... just as the summer driving season is getting under way.  Strange!  But why?  Is it those greedy speculators again?  Has Obama opened up drilling in the Gulf of Mexico ... or released oil from our Strategic Oil Reserve?  No. 

There is a simple, straight-forward reason for this drop in the oil price (and gold too, you gold bugs).  The Euro has weakened considerably ... from a $1.47 high last summer to a current low of $1.26 ... and, me thinks, it is going quite a bit lower.  And, since most commodities are traded in dollars, not Euros, the United States backdoor benefits from all the foot dragging, indecision and political turmoil that is occurring in that Rube-Goldberg of a creation called the EuroZone. (But pity the poor driver in Greece.)

Or this oil-price skid could reverse itself overnight if Iran becomes super unsettled.