Newsroom
The Goldbugg Report – August 04, 2009
August 4, 2009
WORLD FINANCIAL REPORT ON RADIO JULY 30 2009 SHOW
-Is Rich Dad Right About $15,000 Gold? Peter Cooper
-Gold demand seen leaving ETFs for futures, real metal. GATA
-Silver bought at any price under $30 will be the buy of the century. Howard Ruff
GOLD
-Clive Maund gold market update. Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/CliveMaund/1248674940.php
-The summer months are generally quiet as people focus on holidays, rather than markets. This year, however, is shaping up to be an exception because of a weak US dollar.
We can see from the above chart how the US Dollar Index has been slipping. The bear market rally that began last year has ended. More to the point, it looks like the long-term downtrend in the Dollar Index is resuming.
The Dollar Index closed Friday at 78.75, not far above its low of 78.40 made in June. Watch this June low. If the Dollar Index makes a new low, I expect the dollar’s decline to accelerate rapidly. A collapse in the dollar may prove to be the spark that sends gold higher, and over $1,000 per ounce.
The above gold chart is very powerful. An inverted “head & shoulders” pattern has been forming for more than one year. Normally, “H&S;” patterns form at important bottoms when selling has exhausted itself. It is rare for an inverted “H&S;” to form within an uptrend, and therefore it is extraordinary that one has now formed within gold’s decade-long uptrend. It is also unusual to see it forming a complex double right shoulder. But there is an important message here.
This pattern is telling us that the decline in gold last year after the Lehman collapse was a classic selling climax. Gold was dumped in the rush by hedge funds and others to de-leverage. That selling led to a bottom that was marked by emotion, not logic.
It has been my view that gold will climb above $1,000 this year and stay there. I thought it would happen in the first quarter, and while gold did reach $1,000, it failed to stay there. The next time I expect there will be a different result. Gold will hurdle $1,000 and keep climbing. That moment is rapidly approaching. James Turk-
http://goldmoney.com/commentary-the-summer-doldrums-are-ending.html
-Gold to Target Record Above $970 Resistance: Technical Analysis. Gold may extend a recent rally and target its record high as so-called momentum indicators suggest “there’s plenty of fuel in the tank to propel a multi-week advance,” BNP Paribas SA said, citing trading patterns. Gold’s current advance has scope to replicate the powerful April-to-June uptrend, Andrew Chaveriat, the bank’s New York- based technical strategist, wrote in a report yesterday.
Projecting a similar rise off the July 8 low of $905.10, gold may target $1,030 by early September, a target that coincides with the revisiting of the March 2008 record high of $1,032.70, Chaveriat wrote. Bullion’s eight-week stochastic indicator is “well below” the oversold zone, he said. The precious metal is down 8.1 percent from its peak on March 17, 2008. Bullion’s high this year was $1,006.29 an ounce, reached Feb. 20.
“In order to confirm scope for a rally toward $1,030, gold must overcome robust resistance at $957 and $970, representing the 61.8 percent and 76.4 percent retracement points of the June to July decline,” Chaveriat wrote, referring to percentages that are part of the Fibonacci sequence. Resistance levels are where sell orders may be clustered. Fibonacci analysis is based on the theory that prices rise or fall by certain percentages after reaching a high or low.
A break of a level of support indicates a price may move to the next level. A failure indicates a trend may stall. Other key Fibonacci levels include 38.2 percent and 50 percent. “However, given this month’s swift rise, daily momentum is overbought, and combined with the proximity of $957 and $965 resistance, this might cause a near-term pause in the rally and perhaps a pullback toward $942/$932 support,” he said.
“If such a consolidation or dip occurs, it should be followed by renewed gains breaking $957/$965/$970 resistance, opening a re-test of the $990 June high,” Chaveriat added. “Breaking $990 is possible next month, opening the $1,000 psychological barrier and February high.” Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid;=aIbDlt7LsS3w
-Is Rich Dad Right About $15,000 Gold? Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/PeterCooper/1248786797.php
-The bottom line is gold’s quest for $1000 is nearing fulfillment. Not only are its fundamentals very bullish (including big inflation coming), but for the first time ever its technicals support such a move. $1000 is no longer overextended or overbought, but actually within multi-year and multi-month trends.
It won’t require much buying by traders to push it over $1000 now, and $1000 won’t feel excessive given gold’s high base. And gold $1000 is not just a curiosity, but a potential major driver of large new investment demand. Big round numbers are widely reported, which drives interest among a far greater population of investors.
$1000 could even prove, in retrospect, to be the point when gold investment started growing desirable among average mainstream investors. It is a critical psychological milestone with very bullish implications. Adam Hamilton-Read more here-http://www.321gold.com/editorials/hamilton/hamilton072409.html
-China May Overtake India in Gold Demand, Council Says. China may overtake India to become the world’s top gold consumer this year, the World Gold Council said, as the nation became the first of the major economies to rebound from the global recession.
Jewelry demand in China expanded in the first quarter while dropping in India, Marcus Grubb, a managing director at the London-based council, said today at a conference in Hong Kong. Chinese gold demand will keep rising, he said.
China’s economy grew 7.9 percent in the second quarter after a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package spurred record lending and consumption. India’s gold purchases slumped 54 percent in the six months ended June after a decline in the rupee pushed up the cost of owning bullion, cooling demand from housewives and jewelers, the Bombay Bullion Association said.
“There is a possibility that China might overtake India as the world’s largest gold consumer this year,” Hou Huimin, deputy head of the China Gold Association, said by phone from Beijing today. “India’s gold consumption is reportedly dropping this year due to the financial crisis.”
Total demand from India in the first quarter fell 83 percent to 17.7 metric tons, from 107.2 tons a year earlier, according to figures from the World Gold Council. Purchases in China rose 1.8 percent to 105.2 tons from 103.3 tons. Total Chinese demand for gold was six times that of India in the first quarter, the council said in May. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=atBLFVabOk4c
-The Day the Dollar Died and the Day Gold was Reborn. If your money is dollars, you live in an inflationary world. If your money is denominated in gold, you live in a deflationary world. In other words if your purchasing power is dollar denominated, costs have exploded upward. But if you maintained your purchasing power in gold, costs have decreased by almost 2/3rds of their original price from 1971! Check out the table below. Using the price data from above lets construct a table measuring cost in percentage terms from 1971 to 2009.
Of all the investment vehicles out there right now, Gold seems poised to have a lot of action in the coming months and years. I believe little by little is it going to be recognized for what it really is, real money. Gold is not an “I owe you” (I.O.U). It is not debt. It has been real money since the dawn of civilization. Do you have any real money? If yes, make sure you’ve got your plan or strategy mapped out. If no, it’s time to take action. Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Downey/jul272009.html
-Gene Arensberg: Gold running into a Comex wall. Gene Arensberg’s new Got Gold Report, excerpted from Brien Lundin’s Gold Newsletter, elaborates on the shorting that is growing rapidly in the Comex gold market while futures market conditions are improving for silver. Arensberg’s commentary is headlined “Gold Running into a Comex Wall.” Read more here-
-Gold moves in a mysterious way well perhaps not! People trust gold more than governments and the political establishment. That is gold’s inherent strength that makes it a good investment throughout difficult economic times. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=86722&sn;=Detail
-Gold will remain range-bound at $950/oz into 2010-BMO’s Bart Melek. BMO Global Commodity Strategist Bart Melek says gold’s “impressive seven-year run” will continue well into 2011, as commodities will rally. Read more here-http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page57?oid=86735&sn;=Detail
-Central Banks USD over-exposure good for gold, bad for dollar? US liabilities to foreign governments at end-May totalled a whopping $2.3 trillion dollars or 17% of GDP but the maturity curve is shifting to the short end, partly but not wholly as a result of quantitative easing. In principle this should be good for gold. Read more here-
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=86932&sn;=Detail
-The predicted growth in consumer electronics in the future looks set to be a good end market for gold. The world’s fourth most-traded commodity is no longer just being used in jewellery, but also plays a significant role in several industries. The industrial demand for gold in 2008 was estimated at 430 t, which is about 12% of total end user consumption.
The main consuming industry for gold is the electronics industry, which, in 2007, used over 300 t of gold in bonding wire, which is used in semiconductor chips and electroplated coatings on contacts and connectors, organisation for gold-mining companies World Gold Council head of industrial applications Dr Richard Holliday tells Mining Weekly.
“Gold is mostly used in computers and mobile phones. It is not unusual for a computer to contain over $5 of gold on the circuit boards. “As the consumer electronic market grows, it is important that gold retains its position as ‘the material of choice’,” he adds. Read more here-http://www.miningweekly.com/article/all-that-glitters-is-indeed-gold-2009-07-31
-Cenbank sales under gold pact well below limit: WGC. Official sector gold sales under the Central Bank Gold Agreement (CBGA) have totalled only 140 tonnes so far in the pact’s final year, well short of the maximum 500 tonnes allowed, the World Gold Council said. France and Sweden are the two principal remaining sellers, the WGC said in an emailed statement on Wednesday, although the possibility exists for a further sale by the European Central Bank.
The 15 signatories of the pact, which also include the central banks of Spain, Germany and Italy, agreed in 2004 to limit gold sales to the market to 500 tonnes in any one year. “With 140 tonnes of sales, according to our numbers, it looks like we have had over 100 tonnes less than was sold over the same period of last year,” said Barclays Capital analyst Suki Cooper.
“Given the current pace, it is likely this is going to be the lowest annual sales-per-quota year since the start of the very first agreement.” The first CBGA was signed in 1999, and limited sales to 400 tonnes per year to avoid flooding the market with bullion and consequently destabilising the gold price.
However, with bullion an increasingly attractive portfolio diversifier for central banks after a period of instability in the currency markets, fewer are selling gold, while talk emerged earlier this year of Asian banks considering new purchases. Read more here-http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE56S0CJ20090729?feedType=RSS&feedName;=investingNews
-Gold tunes out weak ETF buying as speculation soars. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUSTRE56S3MW20090729 or http://www.gata.org/node/7635
-Gold demand seen leaving ETFs for futures, real metal. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/7636
-King World News interviews Eric Sprott on markets and metals. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/7632
-Financial Tube interviews GATA’s Douglas on commodities, gold, silver. Listen here-http://www.thefinancialtube.com/video/4852/725-Adrian-Douglas-on-Commodities
SILVER
Gold to silver ratio at 80 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $33.75
Gold to silver ratio at 70 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $38.57
Gold to silver ratio at 60 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $45.00
Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $54.00
Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $67.50
Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $90.00
Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $135.00
Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $2,700 the silver price would be $180.00
-Clive Maund Silver market update. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/CliveMaund/1248656034.php
-Ted Butler silver commentary. Old-time country music fans will recognize the title as one of the late Tammy Wynette’s greatest hits. Men and women are alike in uncountable ways, yet are also remarkably different. In every species, the female is from Venus, the male from Mars. Sometimes, even relationships that have endured for the longest time end in divorce. Today, I write of the pending divorce I see in a relationship that the world has grown comfortable in observing for hundreds of years.
As such, when it becomes obvious that the two will part ways, most will be shocked and in disbelief. Yet there will be no reconciliation and the split should prove permanent. The divorce I speak of is in the price relationship between gold and silver. Gold will still be gold, of course, and will remain as it has been since the dawn of civilization, valued by the world’s inhabitants for its beauty and rarity.
As will silver. Each will exist forever, as they have existed through the ages. Each will rise and fall in price based upon supply and demand and investment flows and the presence (or absence) of manipulation. Nothing can change that. What will change is the price relationship they have shared in everyone’s living memory. They are about to begin separate journeys. In the coming price relationship dissolution, silver will be the cause of the break up.
That’s because it is the price of silver, relative to gold, that is out of line. Just like a spouse long-abused in a one-sided relationship, silver will be the one to blossom once the marriage is terminated. Certainly, I am not suggesting that gold has abused silver, as inert materials can’t possible abuse anything. The abuse of the silver price has come from the long-running manipulation.
It is the coming end of the silver manipulation that will set silver free to begin its own new price life. Just like a marriage that never should have occurred, given the real facts, silver has no business being less than 2% of the price of gold. Whether it deserves to be equal to gold in price is debatable, but it certainly doesn’t make sense for gold to be 70, or 50, or even 20 times more than the price of silver.
On any reasonable and objective measurement, from annual production to existing inventories, the gold/silver price relationship is lopsided. You may think my divorce analogy is a bit extreme, but the coming price out-performance of silver compared to gold will reward those who back the real winner. The current price relationship is on the rocks. Those that can switch gold holdings to silver should do so without delay. Read more here-http://news.silverseek.com/TedButler/1248708118.php
-It’s time for real investors to indulge their financial lust. One of the inexorable investment laws is “buy low, sell high.” Silver and gold have seen sharp dips in the last few days. Silver is now a lot better buy at $13.50 than it was at $16 awhile ago. If your holdings have dipped, think of this as an opportunity to buy more.
When silver goes to $25 an ounce, everyone, including many of my subscribers will want some, and I will get emails from some people asking, “Isn’t silver too high?”
Silver bought at any price under $30 will be the buy of the century, and some day you will brag about how smart you were. $13.50 is a lot better than $30. I hope that silver stays down for a while so my new subscribers have a chance to get in cheaply. Don’t give up the ship! Buy, buy, buy! Howard Ruff-Read more here-http://www.kitco.com/ind/Ruff/ruff_jul162009.html
-China offers silver bullion for investment. Watch video here-http://www.cctv.com/program/bizchina/20090723/102545.shtml
-China offers silver bullion for investment. China has introduced its first-ever investment opportunity for silver bullion. The bars are available in 500 grams, 1 kilogram, 2 kilograms and 5 kilograms with a purity of 99.9 percent.
Figures show that gold was 50 times more expensive than silver in 2007. But now that figure has reached to over 70 times, the highest in the past five years. Analysts say that silver has been undervalued in recent years. They add that the metal is a wise investment for individual investors, and could be a good way to cash in.
Wang Chunli, GM of Beijing Caibai Shopping Mall said “We are the first to offer silver bullion as an investment opportunity. The price for the first batch of the bullion is set very low, close to the cost of the raw material. The investment threshold is not high, and is more suitable for the general public. Silver is much cheaper than gold.” Read more here-
http://www.cctv.com/program/bizchina/20090723/101308.shtml
-New and accessible silver investment trust goes live in the US. Gold and silver ETF investment has slowed recently as the markets have become more cautious; does the market have room for another instrument and are either silver or gold top-heavy? Read more here-http://www.mineweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page32?oid=86662&sn;=Detail
-ETFs could give silver further boost. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=76B82298-8208-4AAB-BB17-4DFD32D4A068
CHART OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS
-Chart of the week: China’s Incredible Run. Chinese shares crashed 5% Wednesday, setting off a mild panic about Asian stocks and currencies. Chinese stocks have had a massive rally this year, by far outpacing the S&P;’s meteoric rise since March. So perhaps a pull back shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Read more here-
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-china-vs-us-2009-7
-”The engine which drives Enterprise is not Thrift, but Profit.” John Maynard Keynes
-When any welfare scheme is being proposed, its political sponsors always dwell on what a generous and compassionate government should pay to Paul; they neglect to mention that this additional money must be seized from Peter. Henry Hazlitt
-The stock market is no longer the sum product of informed, or Captains of Industry, action. It is a rigged casino and asset bubble that is used to paper over declining US living standards. Bill King The King Report 23 July 2009
-Throughout all my years of investing, I’ve found that the big money was never made in the buying or the selling…the big money was made in the waiting. Jesse Livermore
-Inflation is like sin, every government denounces it and every government practices it. Frederick Leith-Ross (1887-1968), chief economic advisor to UK government from 1932 to 1945
-By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Chapter VI (1919)
-Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair. Sam Ewing (1920–2001), American journalist & humorist, The National Enquirer, 2 September 1997 issue
-The world’s financial system lies in ruins, as do the fiscal balances of almost every major Western nation, after having to bail out their banks and splashed billions of dollars of rescue money into the broader economy. Everyone is suffering, as unemployment climbs, house prices fall, and companies rack up losses or even face collapse. Edmund Conway The Telegraph, London 29 July 2009
-Whether ancient or modern, monarchy or republic, coin or paper, each nation descends pretty much the same slippery slope, expanding government to address perceived needs, accumulating too much debt, and then repudiating its obligations by destroying its currency. James Turk and John Rubino
-We can’t forget we’re still in a bear market. Sure, the rally has been a strong one. The markets are going higher and there’s no news bad enough to stop the rise. But all signs point to this being the third and final stage of a bear market rally. If you recall, Stage 3 of a bear market rally is when we see potential panic buying. As we stated back in early April in when will this rally end:
Panic buying is the inverse of panic selling. Panicked sellers dump stocks at any price because they think they’re all going much lower. Panic buying, on the other hand, is when investors rush back in because they’re afraid they’ll miss the rest of the rally (the dot-com bubble is the perfect example of this). If that starts, watch out. Dow 10,000 or 11,000 – followed by a sharp downturn will shortly follow.
We’re on the verge of panic buying right now. The Investment Company Institute reports more than $6.6 billion of new money flowed into long-term stock and bond funds last week. That’s more than double $3.15 billion from the previous week. It is clear individual and professional investors are getting concerned about they’ll “never be able to get in.” Knowing how bear market rallies act, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Andrew Mickey-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1248793312.php
-Corporate insiders more bearish than at any time in nearly two years. Corporate insiders have recently been selling their companies’ shares at a greater pace than at any time since the top of the bull market in the fall of 2007. Does that mean you should immediately start lightening your equity exposure?
It depends on whom you ask. But, first, the data. Corporate insiders are a company’s officers, directors and largest shareholders. They are required to report to the SEC whenever they buy or sell shares of their companies, and various research firms collect and analyze those transactions.
One is the Vickers Weekly Insider Report, published by Argus Research. In their latest issue, received Monday afternoon, Vickers reported that the ratio of insider selling to insider buying last week was 4.16-to-1, the highest the ratio has been since October 2007. I don’t need to remind you that the 2002-2007 bull market topped out that month. Mark Hulbert-Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=884853C9-C9E4-4619-95CC-0AC9EC55AC67
-IMF chief cautious on economic recovery. It is good news that financial markets are doing better but 2009 will still be a bad year for the world economy, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday.
In an interview with France 24 television, he also said the U.S. dollar was likely to remain the world’s reserve currency and called the return to generous bonuses for workers in U.S. banks scandalous. “It’s good that financial markets are doing better. It’s good that companies are starting to have better results. But 2009 will be a bad year,” he said. “We are only halfway through. The rest of the year will not be good. And the pick-up that we see really only exists as of 2010. So we mustn’t get wrapped up in it.”
Even when the economy has recovered, unemployment will remain high and rise for some time, he said. Asked whether the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), an international reserve asset, could replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s main reserve currency, he said: “We are far, very far from having a situation in which the supremacy of the dollar would be contested.” Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLT4043720090729
-Bernanke: This may be worse than Great Depression. Fed chief says growth will resume at 1% in the second half of this year. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke discussed the economy with average Americans on Sunday, saying the current financial crisis could be even more virulent than the Great Depression.
“A lot of things happened, a lot came together and created probably the worst financial crisis, certainly since the Great Depression and possibly even including the Great Depression,” Bernanke said at the start of a town-hall meeting in Kansas City.
Bernanke defended the Fed’s extraordinary moves, which have included slashing interest rates to zero, pumping billions of dollars to keep credit markets open, and buying Treasurys and mortgage debt to keep long-term interest rates low.
“I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression,” he said. The event is being televised over three nights, beginning Monday, by U.S. public television network PBS. Members of the public, screened by PBS, were able to ask questions.
Many questioners expressed unhappiness with the “too big to fail” doctrine. One asked when Bernanke would get around to firing the leadership of banks that had to accept government assistance.
Another participant said the only thing that was clear to him in the whole crisis was that his small business was “too small to save.” At first, Bernanke tried to argue that the Fed moved to save big banks to protect the global economy, but by the end, Bernanke simply agreed that “too-big-to-fail has got to go.” Read more here-
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=86E26A1D-706A-43AD-B3A6-628817AAE3E3 or http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124865498517982625.html
-U.S. Assures ‘Concerned’ China It Will Shrink Deficit. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pledged to rein in the U.S. deficit as China underscored concern about preserving the value of its $801.5 billion of Treasury holdings.
The U.S. will ensure a “sustainable” deficit by 2013, Geithner said at the beginning of the first round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue talks under President Barack Obama in Washington. China is “concerned about the security of our financial assets,” Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said. Read more here-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=ahbrpBhqRYVQ
-Deficit: What caused it, why it matters. The government is spending more than it’s bringing in. A lot more. The result is a deficit. Here’s why that gap must be brought under control. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/30/news/economy/federal_budget_deficit/index.htm?postversion=2009073009
-The next great bailout: Social Security. Fortune’s Allan Sloan takes a look at the troubled retirement program, why it’s more important now than ever and how lawmakers can repair it. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/news/economy/fixing_social_security.fortune/index.htm
-The number of states that have exhausted their unemployment insurance fund and now must borrow from the federal government to meet weekly payment obligations continues to rise. So far, 18 states have tapped the feds for a total of $12 billion. Read more here-http://caseyresearch.com/displayCcs.php?e=true
-U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rise by 25,000 to 584,000. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=aNg3FgKf5cMk
-Detroit area jobless rate tops 17%. Government report shows unemployment continues to rise in the Motor City. California’s Riverside area also ranks high. Read more here-
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/news/economy/metro_area_unemployment/index.htm
-U.S. Consumer Confidence Falls More Than Forecast. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=a8mBvuKvJlrk
-British economic collapse rivals Great Depression. The collapse in Britain’s economy now rivals the worst days of the Great Depression, it has emerged. Read more here-
-Credit card crisis to grip Britain, IMF warns. Britain’s credit card debt crisis will get significantly worse in the coming months with a wave of consumer payment defaults, the International Monetary Fund has warned. Read more here-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/creditcards/5914853/Credit-card-crisis-to-grip-Britain-IMF-warns.html
-El Nino May Ease Worst Texas Drought, Cut Florida Storm Risk. The return of an El Nino climate pattern to the Pacific Ocean may relieve the worst Texas drought in 90 years and may reduce the threat of hurricanes ravaging orange groves in Florida.
El Nino, characterized by warming waters in the Pacific, “could bring relief” in the fall and winter to Texas, where farms are suffering from the lack of rain, the National Weather Service said July 16. The El Nino will last through the Northern Hemisphere winter and into 2010, presaging winter storms in the Southwest and a reduction in Atlantic hurricanes, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said July 9. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid;=aQFVJ1f9GKTA
-Victor Vangelakos lives in a luxury condominium tower on the Caloosahatchee River. He never has to worry about the neighbors making too much noise. There are no neighbours.
Vangelakos, 45, his wife Cathy and their three children are the only residents in the 32-story Oasis I condo on the east edge of downtown Fort Myers. Read more here-
-Glenfiddich 50-Year $16,000 Whisky Tempts Investors. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid;=agn9kiqcLGMg
PLATINUM-PALLADIUM
-Platinum May Rise to $1,500 on Supply Disruptions, Merrill Says. Platinum prices may climb above $1,500 an ounce “in the next couple of years” as demand recovers amid supply constraints in South Africa, the world’s biggest producer, according to Banc of America Securities- Merrill Lynch.
The precious metal has almost halved from last year’s high of $2,301.50 an ounce as investors liquidated physical positions and demand from industrial users saw a sharp drop, prompting miners to reduce investments, Michael Widmer, the bank’s London- based metals strategist, wrote in a report dated July 24.
“Miners are curtailing capital expenditure,” Widmer said. “Mine safety remains an issue and disruptions led to output falling short of planned production. These factors should support gradual price rises as demand recovers.”
The metal has rebounded 28 percent this year, outpacing silver and gold, as signs of an economic rebound spurred demand. Platinum declined 39 percent last year, the steepest loss since at least 1988. Platinum, the second-most expensive precious metal after rhodium, is used in jewelry, computer screens and pollution- control devices for cars.
South Africa’s miners, which account for three-quarters of global output, “faced a host of problems in recent years” that subdued supply growth, including power shortages and safety issues, Widmer wrote. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid;=aAvPrV3mh0Vw
-The Rare Colored Diamonds Historical Value Tracker system is the perfect tool for investors to view the potential future value of a rare colored diamond based on the current market trend of a particular type of diamond. Track the potential future value of colored diamonds here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/HistoricalPriceTrackingsystem.html
-Watch BTV interview of Harold Seigel on colored diamonds and his website http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/. Watch video here-http://www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com/watchnow.html
-Christie’s jewellery, jadeite and watch sales fell 53 percent to $129.6 million in the first half of 2009 despite reporting that diamond prices at auction remained. The auction house reported sales of $275 million for the jewellery, jadeite and watch unit in the same period of 2008. “Diamond prices remained very much in line with those achieved at the same time last year,” the company said in a statement.
Two jewellery sales took place in New York realizing a total of $30.4 million. Highlights in New York included a perfect pear shaped diamond of 30.02 carats, which went for $4 million. Christie’s added that colored diamonds continued to be in strong demand with a pear-shaped blue flawless gem of 6.29 carats selling for $3.5 million. Read more here-
http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=27300
7 MORE U.S. BANKS FAIL-NUMBER 2 TEXAS BANK EXPECTS TO FAIL
-7 regional banks fail. 6 subsidiaries of a Georgia bank go down, bringing the tally to 16 for the state in 2009. A N.Y. bank is the first FDIC-insured bank in the state to fail since 2004. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aTvSvyYr_sEE or http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/companies/bank_failure/index.htm
-No. 2 Texas bank expects to fail. In filing, Guaranty Financial says it’s ‘critically’ short of capital, and is talking to investors about recapitalization. Read more here-
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/companies/guaranty_financial.reut/index.htm or http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-guaranty25-2009jul25,0,7142268.story
MORE THAN 1,000 U.S. BANKS MAY FAIL-BANK BONUSES
-More than 1,000 banks may fail, analyst estimates. RBC’s Cassidy sharply raises gloomy view, urges avoiding banking stocks. In 2008, analyst Gerard Cassidy forecast 200 to 300 bank failures, but now he says the environment has deteriorated since then. See 2008 story on bank failures.
“Residential mortgage delinquencies remain at record levels, home-equity loan defaults are steadily rising and residential construction and land loan non-performing assets are skyrocketing for lenders with excess exposure to the weakest housing markets in the U.S.,” Cassidy wrote in a note to clients. “In conjunction with the slowdown in the economy, credit deterioration has accelerated in the commercial and industrial and commercial real estate loan areas,” he said.
Since the mortgage-fueled credit crunch erupted in 2007, 34 banks have failed in the U.S. While Washington Mutual became the biggest bank failure in history last year, Cassidy expects most of the banks that collapse will be relatively small, with less than $2 billion in assets. See story on latest banks to fail.
Cassidy and his colleagues have developed an early-warning system for spotting future trouble at banks using a calculation known as the Texas Ratio. It measures credit problems as a percentage of the capital a lender has available to deal with them.
The formula divides the number of a bank’s non-performing loans, including those 90 days delinquent, by its tangible equity capital plus money set aside for future loan losses. Cassidy came up with the ratio after covering Texas banks in the 1980s. He noticed that when problem assets grew to more than 100% of capital, most of the Texas banks in that precarious position ended up failing.
Among the 50 largest U.S. commercial banks by assets, Sterling Financial of Spokane, Wash., had the highest Texas Ratio at the end of the fourth quarter. The ratio of 54% was up from 45.4% in the third quarter and 15.6% at the end of 2007, according to RBC data. Read more here-http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=E2F58082-D9BB-4EBA-AEAE-2E6CEE571BD3
-Get ready for banking’s next headache. A weak economy and frozen financing markets could spell trouble for regional banks with big commercial loan portfolios. Read more here-
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/banks.commercial.fortune/index.htm
-Banks Paid $32.6 Billion in Bonuses Amid U.S. Bailout. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=alEag0rb.3KU
-No profits? Here’s a fat bonus! Citi and Merrill Lynch paid big bonuses despite losing money last year while fellow TARP recipients Goldman and JPMorgan paid more than they earned. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/30/news/companies/bonuses_tarp/index.htm?postversion=2009073015
IMF-U.S.-U.K. BUDGET GAPS TO LEAD G-20 THIS YEAR
-The budget deficits of the U.S. and U.K. will be the largest this year of the world’s top 20 advanced and emerging economies and clear plans to cut spending are needed to ease investor concerns, an International Monetary Fund staff report said.
The U.S. budget gap will be 13.5 percent of the country’s economy this year, and the U.K.’s will be 11.6 percent, as financial rescue efforts swell government debt worldwide, the Washington-based IMF said today in its first report on the fiscal state of the Group of 20 nations. As a result, U.S. government debt next year will almost match the size of the world’s largest economy, the IMF said.
The report urged countries to weigh “complicated tradeoffs” between stimulating growth and easing investors’ worries about inflation. Without identifiable exit plans, stimulus of about 2 percent of the size of the group’s economies this year and 1.6 percent in 2010 may have less of an impact on recovery, the report said.
“The positive growth impact of fiscal expansion would be enhanced by the identification of clear strategies to ensure that fiscal solvency is preserved over the medium term,” the staff report said. “Without such strategies rising interest rates and risk premiums could erode the effectiveness of stimulus measures.”
The report also predicts advanced economies’ debt as a share of gross domestic product will increase by 2014 to 120 percent, an increase of about 40 percentage points from this year and the biggest jump since the end of World War II. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=asKO159nWghs
INFLATION
-Once the global economy begins a temporary recovery (perhaps in the next 6–9 months), we expect that the bull market in commodities is likely to resume. We also expect that the Fed, despite its statements to the contrary, will be faced with additional rounds of money printing as the U.S. government deficit balloons to $2 trillion dollars and remains above a trillion dollars for the balance of the next decade.
We also anticipate a pickup in inflation by year-end and a rise in interest rates later on this year. Contrary to the consensus view that deflation is what lies ahead we believe otherwise, especially in the long term. I can’t guarantee that inflation will be the outcome, but what I’m relying on is over 5,000 years of recorded history to back up my inflation thesis.
I would be surprised to see a nation that imports most of its goods, runs up trillion dollar budget deficits, and whose central bank is monetizing $1.75 trillion of government bonds, would see the value of its currency appreciate. The U.S. has been fortunate so far to have its currency accepted as the world’s reserve currency.
This privilege, afforded to no other nation, allows the U.S. to “export its inflation” to the rest of the world, a privilege that is being increasingly challenged by the major nations of the world. The days of the Dollar’s hegemony are drawing to a close. We are now in the beginning stages of its demise. James J. Puplava-Read more here-
http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/update.html
-Today Starbucks announced that it was spending as much on worker health insurance premiums as it is on coffee. Here’s why: Health insurance premium inflation has gone crazy over the last 10 years vastly outstripping relatively modest wage-inflation growth. Somehow, the blue line has to be bent down. Read more here-
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-changes-in-health-insurance-premiums-2009-7
STOCK AND COMMODITY MARKET MANIPULATION 101
-CFTC Weighing Strict Position Limits on Energy, Gensler Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid;=at2Y0f4GM9vo
-Market manipulation and insider trading with the exchange’s OK. It is the hot new thing on Wall Street, a way for a handful of traders to master the stock market, peek at investors’ orders and, critics say, even subtly manipulate share prices. It is called high-frequency trading and it is suddenly one of the most talked-about and mysterious forces in the markets.
Powerful computers, some housed right next to the machines that drive marketplaces like the New York Stock Exchange, enable high-frequency traders to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense.
These systems are so fast they can outsmart or outrun other investors, humans and computers alike. And after growing in the shadows for years, they are generating lots of talk. Nearly everyone on Wall Street is wondering how hedge funds and large banks like Goldman Sachs are making so much money so soon after the financial system nearly collapsed. High-frequency trading is one answer.
And when a former Goldman Sachs programmer was accused this month of stealing secret computer codes software that a federal prosecutor said could “manipulate markets in unfair ways” it only added to the mystery. Goldman acknowledges that it profits from high-frequency trading, but disputes that it has an unfair advantage.
Yet high-frequency specialists clearly have an edge over typical traders, let alone ordinary investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission says it is examining certain aspects of the strategy.
“This is where all the money is getting made,” said William H. Donaldson, former chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange and today an adviser to a big hedge fund. “If an individual investor doesn’t have the means to keep up, they’re at a huge disadvantage.” Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/7619
-New York senator urges ban on ‘high-frequency’ trades. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/7620 or http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aqUBs5ZbSMeI
-The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will review so-called flash orders used by four equity markets, NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Officer Duncan Niederauer said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=aR1QRozxMTOk
-High-Frequency Traders Say Speed Works for Everyone. Frank Troise, the head of electronic equity trading products at Barclays Plc, says using computers to execute orders in milliseconds is no different than brokers jockeying for position years ago on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
“This has been going on for quite awhile, and it’s now at a fever pitch,” says Troise, 43, who is based in New York. “There’s always been an advantage to executing with speed.” Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid;=a9my6XCRc69Y
-Goldman Says Curbing Speculators May Disrupt Markets. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=abDChEECtFsI
-SEC rule on ‘naked’ short-selling now permanent. Read more here-http://finance.yahoo.com/news/SEC-rule-on-naked-apf-3523034809.html?x=0&sec;=topStories&pos;=main&asset;=&ccode;
S&P; 500 EARNINGS-PE RATIO NOW AT 723
-Today’s chart provides some perspective on the current earnings environment by focusing on 12-month, as reported S&P; 500 earnings. Today’s chart illustrates how earnings are expected (38% of S&P; 500 companies have reported for Q2 2009) to have declined over 98% since peaking in Q3 2007, making this by far the largest decline on record (the data goes back to 1936). In fact, real earnings have dropped to a record low and if current estimates hold, Q3 2009 will see the first 12-month period during which S&P; 500 earnings are negative.
Read more here-http://www.chartoftheday.com/20090724.htm?T
-S&P; 500 PE ratio is now at 723! The historic rule of thumb is that the S&P500; is correctly valued with a price/earnings or PE ratio of 14, the market normally hits the area of 7 at true bear market bottoms, and 21 at bull market tops. There are 2 types of PE ratio that S&P; produce the first ratio is called the OPERATING Earnings.
This is basically the PE ratio calculated with all the bad news stripped out, it is the make believe PE ratio that has very little to do with reality and only has any validity in the fantasy land of CNBC and Wall Street analysts. The other ratio are as REPORTED or real earnings, the giveaway is in the name as these are the earnings that are actually reported to the SEC via the 10Q form each quarter.
These reported earnings are the only reality, as another giveaway is that during every boom these 2 ratios fantasy and reality actually close up they become very close in value, and during every bust we get huge divergences. For example during the last bust the highest Reported PE ratio recorded was 46 which was also the highest PE ratio ever recorded in history! At this same time, the operating PE was 29.
Today with 53% of companies’ results reported for the 2nd quarter 2009 the Operating PE is surprise, surprise “only” at 22.87. So according to CNBC and Wall Street the S&P; 500 is fairly valued so please ignore reality, live in denial and BUY!!! Unfortunately the reality shown by the as reported PE is a truly mind blowing 723. I repeat 723, the previous all time high was 46. Despite this incredible PE ratio the S&P500; has been rising in value and rising strongly, this can only mean a few things. Ceri Shepherd-Read more here-http://news.goldseek.com/TrendInvestor/1248787086.php
REAL ESTATE-MORTGAGES-FORECLOSURES
-Residents of Cleveland, OH and Phoenix, AZ take note: If you bought a home anytime in the 21st century, you’re almost certainly underwater, based on today’s Case-Shiller data. It’s as though the current decade didn’t exist at all. Meanwhile, the two markets up the most since 2000 are the twin seats of global power, New York and Washington, DC. It may not be fair, but it’s how it is. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-housing-case-shiller-2009-7
-Today’s chart is pretty self-explanatory. It’s the price of a single family house in Palm Springs, CA. Watch it do a round trip from 2001 to 2009. The dip started in 2008, and we took a stab at what that buyer was probably thinking. Read more here-http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-real-estate-deal-2009-7
-U.K. House Prices Increased in July, Nationwide Says. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=aHic46O10lMo
-U.S. New-Home Sales Climb 11%, Most in Eight Years. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid;=aOdEKR9_Lz7s
-Slide in Home Prices Is Slowing Down, Index Shows. Read more here-http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/economy/29housing.html
-Las Vegas Home Prices Drop 41% on Foreclosure Sales. The Las Vegas area’s median home price dropped 41 percent in June from a year earlier as foreclosed properties reduced the value of single-family houses and condominiums, MDA DataQuick said today.
The median price fell to $135,000 last month from $230,000 a year earlier, the San Diego-based real estate research company said today in a statement. The number of homes sold increased 44 percent to 5,519.
About 70 percent of existing houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metropolitan area last month were foreclosures, up from 59 percent a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said. Discounts on foreclosed properties boosted sales to the highest since December 2006, when 5,780 homes changed owners. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aBS9PdEmYIgg
-Las Vegas-based Station Casinos Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, making it the latest casualty in the recession-wracked gambling industry. Despite months of haggling, the company failed to reach a prearranged agreement with all its lenders. Bondholders control $2.3 billion of the company’s $5.7 billion in debt. Read more here-
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124881967460688103.html
-San Diego high-rise condo market goes from frenzy to fizzle. Read more here-http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-condobust27-2009jul27,0,881890.story
-U.S. Properties Worth $2.2 Trillion at Default Risk. About $2.2 trillion of U.S. commercial properties bought or refinanced since 2004 are now worth less than the original price, raising the threat of more foreclosures, Real Capital Analytics said.
Prices have fallen so far that about $1.3 trillion of properties have either lost their owners’ down payment or are close to it, Robert White, president of the New York-based research firm, said in a report. The analysis includes only office, industrial, multifamily and retail properties. Hotels and raw land would “add billions more to the total,” he wrote.
“The sad fact is that many of these assets are healthy performing assets,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital. “Conditions have changed so much in the lending arena that many owners are going to have significant troubles refinancing.”
The report details the magnitude of the crisis in commercial real estate, where the collapse of securitized mortgages have combined with the recession to send prices plummeting and push landlords into default. U.S. commercial property prices are down 35 percent since the peak in October 2007, according a survey from Moody’s Investors Service.
The real estate market is stalled because buyers and sellers are far apart on values, said Raymond Torto, global chief economist at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the world’s biggest commercial property brokerage. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=agyb1t2XNasM
-Commercial mortgage delinquency up 585%. Delinquencies on commercial mortgage backed securities soared $10 billion in June, hitting a 12-month high of almost $29 billion, according to Realpoint Research.
California led the nation with the highest amount of delinquent loans, closely followed by Texas and Florida. Late loans across the country are up an “astounding” 585 percent from a year ago when just $4 billion were delinquent, reported the Horsham, Pa.-based research firm. The low point for delinquency was March 2007 when $2 billion was delinquent. Read more here-
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/07/20/daily104.html?t=printable
-Las Vegas, Fort Myers, Florida Lead U.S. Cities in Foreclosures. Las Vegas and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida led U.S. metropolitan areas in foreclosures in the first half of the year as unemployment and falling home prices forced home-loan defaults, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
The Las Vegas area had the highest rate of foreclosure filings, with 7.5 percent of households receiving a default or auction notice or being seized by a lender. That rate was six times the national average. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers region, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, was second, with a rate of 7.2 percent.
“Foreclosure activity continued its upward trajectory nationwide and in the majority of metro areas in the first half of the year,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. “While some of the markets that had the highest saturation of foreclosures over the past few years have seen declining rates, new markets like Provo, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, have seen large increases.”
Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped 17.1 percent in May from a year earlier, according to the S&P;/Case-Shiller index. Nationwide, home prices have fallen 21 percent since peaking in July of 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, the highest in almost 26 years, the U.S. Labor Department said on July 2. That brought the total number of lost jobs to about 6.5 million since the recession started in December 2007, the Labor Department said. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid;=aZejjD7U1FNw or http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56T0P020090730
-Big cities: Big changes in foreclosure rates. Among the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, these cities have recorded the biggest year-over-year changes in foreclosure rates. Read more here-http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/real_estate/0907/gallery.Big_city_changes_in_foreclosure_rates/index.html
ISRAEL VS. IRAN
-It’s Crunch Time for Israel on Iran. After years of failed diplomacy no one will be able to call an attack precipitous. Relations between the U.S. and Israel are more strained now than at any time since the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. Mr. Gates’s message for Israel not to act on Iran, and the U.S. pressure he brought to bear, highlight the weight of Israel’s lonely burden.
Striking Iran’s nuclear program will not be precipitous or poorly thought out. Israel’s attack, if it happens, will have followed enormously difficult deliberation over terrible imponderables, and years of patiently waiting on innumerable failed diplomatic efforts. Absent Israeli action, prepare for a nuclear Iran. John Bolton-Read more here-
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203609204574316093622744808.html
-Iran vows to hit Israel’s atomic sites if attacked: report. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56O0ME20090725
-The U.S. would seek international backing for stiffer sanctions on Iran should the Persian Gulf nation rebuff talks aimed at curbing its nuclear program, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Amman. “We would try to get international support for a much tougher position,” Gates said today in the Jordanian capital. He added that any new sanctions wouldn’t be incremental. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=avxQyljVdxpY
-Clinton says Iran’s nuclear pursuit is “futile.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and reiterated Washington’s commitment to protect close ally Israel from any threat posed by Tehran.
“We are going to do everything we can to prevent you (Iran) from getting a nuclear weapon. Your pursuit is futile,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, adding that Iran did not have the right to develop a nuclear weapon. Clinton annoyed ally Israel last week by saying the United States would cope with a nuclear Iran by arming its allies in the Gulf and extending a “defense umbrella” over the region. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2651064120090726
H1N1 FLU
-WHO says pandemic gaining speed, sees winter risks. The H1N1 flu virus is starting to infect older people, and pregnant women and the obese are at highest risk, the World Health Organisation said on Friday. In a statement, the United Nations agency said school-age children remain most affected by the newly discovered virus that has been spreading fast in schools and is gaining momentum in broad communities alongside seasonal flu.
“It remains a top priority to determine which groups of people are at highest risk of serious disease so steps to best protect them can be taken,” it said, estimating that vaccine manufacturers should have H1N1 shots ready soon. “Manufacturers are expected to have vaccines for use around September. A number of companies are working on the pandemic vaccine production and have different timelines,” the statement on the WHO website read.
About 800 people have died from the new virus whose fast international transmission caused the WHO to declare in June that a flu pandemic is under way. But for most patients, H1N1 is causing mild and manageable symptoms. “For the moment we haven’t seen any changes in the behaviour of the virus,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said earlier on Friday, while warning the virus could change as it circulates, especially in flu-conducive wintry conditions.
“We do have to be aware that there could be changes and we have to be prepared for those,” he told a Geneva news briefing. Read more here-
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLO6472720090724
-H1N1 flu could strike up to 40 percent in 2 years. Read more here-http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090724/ap_on_he_me/us_med_swine_flu
-H1N1 flu spreads to remote corners of the world-WHO. Read more here-http://www.reuters.com/article/wtUSInvestingNews/idUSLR35367220090727
-Argentina Flu Death Mystery Sparks Probe for Virus Mutation. Scientists wondering why swine flu has killed more people in Argentina than almost any other nation are studying whether a more dangerous mutant has emerged.
The Latin American country has reported more than 130 deaths from the pandemic H1N1 flu virus since June. Analyses of specimens taken from two severely ill patients showed subtle genetic differences in the virus, the International Society for Infectious Diseases said in a report via its ProMED-mail program yesterday.
Scientists from Columbia University and Argentina’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases now plan to decode the complete genomic sequences of at least 150 virus samples over the next 10 days to gauge the frequency of the changes and whether they are linked to more severe illness. Major changes in the pandemic virus could erode the effectiveness of vaccines being prepared to fight the scourge. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=aljo5vnxK3z8
-Military planning for possible H1N1 outbreak. Read more here-http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/07/28/military.swine.flu/
-Pandemic Shot May Be Available as Early as September. Read more here-http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid;=ac_tPfIEQzTA
© 2012, Worldwide Precious Metals Canada Ltd.
www.wwpmc.com
The Goldbugg Report – August 04, 2009
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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