Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Unexpectedly Decrease: Economy
Previously owned home sales fell unexpectedly in June as tight supply and increasing rates for mortgages imperiled the real-estate market recovery in the U.S.
Purchases (ETSLTOTL) fell 1.2 percent to a 5.08 million annualized rate, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 5.26 million pace. Demand was the second-strongest since November 2009 following May’s downwardly revised 5.14 million rate.
Housing starts decline 9.9%
The Commerce Department's residential construction report released Wednesday morning showed an unexpected downturn for housing starts.
Housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000. That's down 9.9% from the upwardly revised May estimate. Compared with a year ago, however, June starts were up 10.4%.
South Korea Opening Gold Exchange In Q1, 2014
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,313.75, EUR 998.21 and GBP 859.22 per ounce.
Friday’s AM fix was USD 1,286.00, EUR 981.53 and GBP 843.45 per ounce.
Gold rose $10.70 or 0.83% on Friday and closed at $1,294.40/oz. Silver climbed $0.11 or 0.57% and closed at $19.49.
Treasuries Not Safe Enough as Foreign Purchase Pace Slows
Foreign investors, the bulwark of the U.S. government bond market as it more than doubled in size during the financial crisis, are adding Treasuries at the slowest pace since 2006 amid the worst rout in four years.
Holdings by non-U.S. investors rose 1.9 percent through May, down from 5.2 percent a year ago data last week show, as foreigners owned less than 50 percent of Treasuries outstanding for the first time since March 2012. Overseas central banks cut the amount of bonds held for them by the Federal Reserve during the second quarter. The Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bond Index fell 2.4 percent, the most since 2009, after Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he might slow asset purchases as the economy improves.
‘America has no functioning democracy’ – Jimmy Carter on NSA
Former US President Jimmy Carter lambasted US intelligence methods as undemocratic and described Edward Snowden’s NSA leak as “beneficial” for the country.
Carter lashed out at the US political system when the issue of the previously top-secret NSA surveillance program was touched upon at the Atlantic Bridge meeting on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia.
Gold futures hiccup indicates demand outpacing supply
July 19 (IFR) - A dislocation in the gold futures market indicating that demand for physical delivery of the metal is now far outweighing supply has intensified in recent weeks, increasing concern in the market that the change may not be a momentary blip and participants may have become over-leveraged.
Gold went into backwardation in comparison to the three-month futures contract in early January, meaning the spot price rose above the short-dated future contact. Now that process looks set to creep out the futures curve to longer-dated maturities, signalling some cause for alarm.
Ahead Of Tomorrow's Hearing On Goldman And JPM's Commodity Cartel
Back in June 2011 we first reported how "Goldman, JP Morgan Have Now Become A Commodity Cartel As They Slowly Recreate De Beers' Diamond Monopoly" in an article that explained, with great detail, how Goldman et al engage in artificial commodity traffic bottlenecking (thanks to owning all the key choke points in the commodity logistics chain) in order to generate higher end prices, rental income and numerous additional top and bottom-line externalities and have become the defacto commodity warehouse monopolists. Specifically, we compared this activity to similar cartelling practices used by other vertically integrated commodity cartels such as De Beers: "While the obvious purpose of "warehousing" is nothing short of artificially bottlenecking primary supply, these same warehouses have no problem with acquiring all the product created by primary producers in real time, and not releasing it into general circulation: once again, a tactic used by De Beers for decades to keep the price of diamonds artificially high."
China Maneuvers To Take Away US' Dominant Reserve Currency Status
“All warfare is based on deception.” – Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” (500 B.C.)
“The message of this initiative is for China to consider whether or not China would open up its banking system and allow the strongest currency in the world, which is the Chinese yuan, to be the rightful and anointed convertible currency of the world.” – Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Olarn Chaipravat in an interview with Bloomberg
Silver ETF holdings sink most in 12 months; traders fear retail exit
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Holdings of the world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded funds have fallen their most in a year to levels last seen in December, sparking fears that mom-and-pop investors have started to unwind investments after last week's rout.
The world's largest silver ETF, the iShares Silver Trust , on Monday posted a 192-tonne, or nearly 2 percent, decline to 9,882 tonnes, its biggest daily drop since June last year. Similarly, holdings in six major silver ETFs tracked by Reuters fell to 16,139 tonnes, their lowest since December.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase: Pulling an Enron With Commodities
In an exemplary bit of reporting that appeared as the lead article in Sunday's New York Times, the journalist David Kocieniewski exposes the corrupt practices of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and other big Wall Street players in rigging the aluminum and copper markets. Even before we've had a chance to recover from the Great Recession caused by their earlier malfeasance, the usual suspects among Wall Street's "too big to fail" banks continue to plunder our society by artificially driving up commodity prices.
Monsanto confirms GE retreat from Europe
What had been brewing for weeks following various hints and tips was finally confirmed last week when Monsanto announced it would cease the marketing of new genetically engineered seeds (GE) in the European Union.
The world's largest seed company had already sent signals in May that it would no longer lobby the EU to approve cultivation of its GE seeds, but we were waiting for an official confirmation before we could really believe it.
A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — Hundreds of millions of times a day, thirsty Americans open a can of soda, beer or juice. And every time they do it, they pay a fraction of a penny more because of a shrewd maneuver by Goldman Sachs and other financial players that ultimately costs consumers billions of dollars.
The story of how this works begins in 27 industrial warehouses in the Detroit area where a Goldman subsidiary stores customers’ aluminum. Each day, a fleet of trucks shuffles 1,500-pound bars of the metal among the warehouses. Two or three times a day, sometimes more, the drivers make the same circuits. They load in one warehouse. They unload in another. And then they do it again.
Legendary General James Mattis Just Gave One Of The Best Talks On Middle East Policy We've Ever Seen
Retired Marine General James N. Mattis gave an insightful talk to a packed crowd at the Aspen Security Forum on Saturday.
The four-star general, who recently retired after leading U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for Iraq and Afghanistan (among others), spoke at length with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Syria, Iran, Israel, and Egypt.
Former head of MI6 threatens to expose secrets of Iraq 'dodgy dossier'
Sir Richard Dearlove, 68, has spent the last year writing a detailed account of events leading up to the war, and had intended to only make his work available to historians after his death.
But now Sir Richard, who provided intelligence about Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) that was apparently 'sexed up' by Tony Blair's government, has revealed that he could go public after the Chilcot Inquiry publishes its findings.
Get Ready for Rising Commodity Prices
On the Nature of Conspiracies
The human mind seeks a narrative explanation of events, a story that makes sense of the swirl of life’s interactions.
The simpler the story, the easier it is to understand. Thus the simple stories are the most attractive to us.
Now That Detroit’s Gone Bust, Is Your City Next?
Detroit’s bankruptcy filing is one depressing read. Poverty, crime, blight – you name the malady and there’s plenty of data to back it up. And unfortunately, Detroit’s not alone. You may be wondering which city hits the wall next.
I’m not making predictions, but I’ve looked at one indicator that may offer some clues: population loss.
Spain taps social security reserve fund to pay pensions
(Reuters) - Spain tapped its social security reserve fund for the second time in a month on Monday, the Labour Ministry said, to help with extra summer pension payments as unemployment and retirement costs deplete government funds.
The government turned to the fund for 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion) on July 1 then for a further 1 billion euros on Monday. Spanish pensioners receive two cheques in summer and two over the Christmas holidays.
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