By Emann Charts
Silver Vault for 200 Tons Starts in Singapore as Wealthy Buy
A silver vault that can hold 200 metric tons opens in Singapore this week to cater for increasing demand for physical precious metals among Asia’s wealthy even as the commodity leads declines this year.
The new facility is 30 percent booked at the opening, said Joshua Rotbart, precious-metals general manager at owner Malca-Amit Global Ltd. The storage will add to the firm’s five vaults at the Singapore FreePort, which are fully reserved for gold, he said in an interview. The repository can hold $128 million of silver at today’s prices. Gold is about 67 times more expensive.
Builders Head Lower As Pending Home Sales Soften
After months of encouraging signs, the housing market is starting to lose steam. The National Association of Realtors said pending home sales, which track houses under contract, dropped 0.4% in June, after rising 6.7% in May.
This comes on the heels of rising rates, with 30-year fixed mortgages averaging 4.37%, compared to 3.35% in May, according to Freddie Mac . “The steeper rates are adding plenty of anxiety to the market and causing some buyers to rethink their home purchase,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the S&P Index Committee.
U.S. stocks drop as investors await Fed, data
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks started the week on a down note, posting a modest decline Monday as home sales fell in the wake of higher mortgage rates and investors nervously awaited more data later in the week and a meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers.
Losses were limited, however, as a round of weekend deal making fanned hopes for a pickup in merger-and-acquisition activity in the second half of the year, while moving shares of retailer Saks Inc., drug maker Perrigo Co. and advertising firm Omnicom Group Inc.
Nouriel Roubini sees gold falling toward $1,000 by 2015: IndexUniverse.com
Gold prices could fall toward $1,000 an ounce by 2015, Nouriel Roubini, cofounder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, recently told IndexUniverse.com’s ETF Report Editor Drew Voros.
Among his reasons:
Risks to the global economy have shrunk. “The world is not going to end,” Roubini, also known as Dr. Doom, said, according to the article published Monday.
7 Charts Of The Market's Complete Divorce From Reality
The mainstream media would have us believe that the U.S. economy must be in great shape since the stock market has been setting new all-time record highs this month. But is that really true? Yes, surging stock prices have enabled sales of beach homes in the Hamptons to hit a brand new record high. However, the reality is that stock prices have not risen dramatically in recent years because corporations are doing so much better than before. In fact, the growth in stock prices has been far, far greater than the growth of corporate revenues. The only reason that stock prices have been climbing so much is because the Federal Reserve has been flooding the financial system with hundreds of billions of dollars that it has created out of thin air. The Fed has created an artificial stock market bubble that is completely and totally divorced from economic reality.
Simon Kuper: Mandela’s miracles
A black South African friend of mine was driving near Pretoria when his car broke down. He got out and began waving at passing cars, asking for help. A bearded white man drove up in a pickup truck – in my friend’s eyes, the archetypal Afrikaner, or “Boer”. The man glanced at my friend, and drove on. “Oh, no,” my friend thought. “I’m in Boer territory. Nobody’s going to dare give a black man a lift.” He stood there cursing his fate – when suddenly the Afrikaner in the truck appeared again and beckoned him to jump in. As they drove off, the Afrikaner said: “I was raised with some bad ideas. Now I’m trying to change myself.” They stayed in touch afterwards.
Egypt restores feared secret police units
Egypt’s interim government was accused of attempting to return the country to the Mubarak era on Monday, after the country's interior ministry announced the resurrection of several controversial police units that were nominally shut down following the country's 2011 uprising and the interim prime minister was given the power to place the country in a state of emergency.
JP Morgan Accused Of Manipulating US Energy Markets Using 8 Different Trading Strategies
The Federal Energy Regulating Commission (FERC) has accused JP Morgan of using manipulative bidding strategies in U.S. energy markets, Bloomberg reports.
The bank’s physical energy business is housed within JP Morgan Ventures Energy Corporation. Back in May, the New York Times reported that regulators warned the bank that it was being investigated for allegedly manipulating markets in Michigan and California.
Jim Rogers: "The Whole 'Economic' World Is Artificial... It's Going To End Very Badly"
"There is a huge artificial boom going on," warns Jim Rogers as for the first time in history, all the world's major central banks are simultaneously printing money. While he remains adamant of the positive outlook for agriculture, the fact that "the whole world is trying to debase their currencies," produces a "major disconnect" between asset values and economic realities. Stocks are at new highs, not based on reality, but on printing presses "and that cannot work... this is going to end very very badly." While not all western economies are as egregious as others, the intertwined nature means their fate remains very much tethered to the US, and as Rogers concludes, "everybody will suffer, be very very careful as these are perilous times."
Stocks Stumble Most In A Month
Ahead of a week full of data and central banks, it is likely unsurprising that volumes were dismal and protection/hedging was sought. Once again we saw dips bought with a rush to get markets green (after the collapse in Asia overnight weighed very modestly on Europe and US markets) but once a few people realized the impact of the Treasury's latest refunding data (must read) stocks did sell off into the close.
Tanzania: Dar es Salaam Mulls Evacuations From Egypt
THE government is closely monitoring the political crisis in Egypt and may soon consider recalling back home all Tanzanians living in the country.
The Director of Middle East Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Hassan Simba Yahya, said in Dar es Salaam that Tanzania's embassy in Cairo was following up the situation closely.
Is Europe Ready to Take Off?
One year ago, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announced that the central bank had the political will to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. Now, the worst may be over, as suggested by stronger economic data coming out of Europe. It appears the Continent is finally on the road to a sustained recovery.
For the past few years, the U.S. has been one of the best places to invest. In fact, the S&P 500 Index has experienced its strongest bull market ever, according to LPL Financial. Highlighted by Bloomberg Businessweek yesterday, since the market bottomed in March 2009, the S&P 500 Index has “bested all bull runs since 1949,” climbing 154 percent over the past four years.
UPDATE 1-Chinese gold demand could hit 1,000 T this year-WGC
LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - China's gold demand could hit a record 1,000 tonnes this year, the World Gold Council said on Thursday, which means it would overtake India as the world's biggest bullion consumer.
Chinese gold demand is likely to be in the region of 950 to 1,000 tonnes in 2013, the WGC's managing director for investment, Marcus Grubb, said, but risks are skewed to the upside and could push demand past the upper end of that range.
This Is For Everyone Who's Thinking Of Buying One Of Those $500 Homes In Detroit
We recently reported that in theory, you can buy a bunch of houses in Detroit for $500 or less.
We've already seen people talking about scooping some up, just as a speculative investment.
But it's a bit more complicated than that.
Egyptian troops fire on Morsi supporters; 72 dead
(CBS News) CAIRO - There has been a deadly escalation in violence in Egypt. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the country is at a "pivotal moment." At least 72 people are dead there, according to the Ministry of Health, after troops opened fire on supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi. There are conflicting claims about exactly what happened. The government says troops only fired tear gas, not live bullets.
Cyprus, lenders set Bank of Cyprus bail-in at 47.5 pct, sources say
(Reuters) - Cyprus and its international lenders have agreed to convert 47.5 percent of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros in Bank of Cyprus to equity to recapitalize it, banking sources said on Sunday.
Under a programme agreed between Cyprus and lenders in March, large depositors in Bank of Cyprus were earmarked to pay for the recapitalisation of the bank. Authorities initially converted 37.5 percent of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros into equity, and held an additional 22.5 percent as a buffer in the event of further needs.
City of Chicago’s cash cushion plummets, debt triples, arrests drop, water use rises
Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed the books on 2012 with $33.4 million in unallocated cash on hand — down from $167 million the year before — while adding to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers, year-end audits show.
Last week, Moody’s Investors ordered an unprecedented triple-drop in the city’s bond rating, citing Chicago’s “very large and growing” pension liabilities, “significant” debt service payments, “unrelenting public safety demands” and historic reluctance to raise local taxes that has continued under Emanuel.
Has the U.S. Treasury Already Exceeded the Debt Limit?
U.S. federal debt has been stuck at $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 68 straight days, according to the Daily Treasury Statement on July 24. That amount is exactly $25 million less than the legal borrowing limit of $16,699,421,000,000.00 set on May 17, 2013. But that's only part of the story.
A digger deep at the numbers actually shows the U.S. Treasury has already blown past the federal legal borrowing limit! And the mainstream media, as usual, is out to lunch. The table below shows how "Total Public Debt Outstanding" is already $38.82 million above the statuary debt ceiling and now at $16,738,106,000,000.00.
Russia follows the yellow brick road, increases gold reserves
Russia continues its gold buying spree, adding 0.3 tonnes to its 996.4 tonne stockpile, marking a nine month increase, according to the IMF’s June statistics report.
Russia’s Central Asian neighbors followed suit in June- Kazakhstan boosted reserves by 1.4 tonnes to a total of 130.9, Azerbaijan added 2 tonnes for a total of 8 tonnes, and Kyrgzstan, which bought less than 0.1 tonnes to total 3.3 tonnes. Ukraine, Greece, Belarus and Bulgaria also added small amounts to their gold reserves.
Courtesy - Emann Charts (EconMatters author archive here)
The views and opinions expressed herein are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of EconMatters.
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