Bullion briefly spiked to $1,702 on Monday, its highest since December 2012, as equity markets across the globe tanked. Gold closed Monday at $1,665, barely moving from Friday’s finish of $1,674. Today, as we go to press, gold is down some $20 from yesterday’s high following slight rebounds in equity markets in Asia and Europe....
Tag: Mar 10 2020
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CORONAVIRUS: IMF TO THE RESCUE
The International Monetary Fund has reserved $50 billion to respond to requests for emergency aid due to the coronavirus’s damage to national economies. Ten billion dollars will available as direct aid for poor countries; the other $40 billion will be made available through a variety of funding mechanisms. When it receives a request for help,...
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Demand for Repo Loans Outstrips Fed’s Record Supply
Hours before the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its interest rate by 0.5 percent on 3 March, demand for overnight repo loans shot up to $108.6 billion against the Fed’s record offering of $1 billion. On 4 March, the Fed offered another $100 billion and the demand for the loans reached $111 billion. Banks were desperately...
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PRESIDENTIAL REALITY SHOW®: THE RACE IS ON
As reported in last week’s Trends Journal, several hours before the ballots were counted in the Super Tuesday primaries, the Democratic Party machine, as it did in 2016, began to rig the race to make sure Senator Bernie Sanders would not win the nomination. Despite Joe Biden’s stumble out of the block at the start...
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SOUTH AFRICA: RECESSION TO DEPRESSION
Rolling electricity blackouts were blamed, in part, for stalling South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s initiative to spark economic growth. Instead, the country slid into its second recession in two years. South Africa’s economy shrank 1.4 percent in 2019’s fourth quarter; analysts had expected a much milder 0.2 percent contraction. The nation’s economy contracted at the...
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INDIA: ECONOMIC DOWNTURN TURNING WORSE
India’s economy, once the world’s fastest-growing among large nations, slowed to a 4.7-percent annual growth rate in 2019’s fourth quarter. The government’s hopes to speed that pace have now come down with the coronavirus. “There’s no real sign of recovery,” said Shumita Deveshwar, chief Indian researcher at TS Lombard. Now the virus has put “a...
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THE AMERICAS: GETTING WORSE ~ Development Bank Warns Latin American Countries
The Inter-American Development Bank warned last week that Latin American nations must improve public services and enlist businesses to reduce inequality and create societies that operate more fairly or their economies will continue to suffer. The Bank noted that the region’s political culture has shifted from dictators forcing obedience on a populace to popular uprisings...
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Energy Stocks Hit Harder Than Most
The average price of energy stocks in the S&P 500 fell almost twice as far recently as the broader index’s value. The shares were down 7.4 percent in five consecutive trading sessions across late February and early March, while the broader index’s aggregate value lost 4 percent over the same period. Oil stocks led the...
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Mortgage Rates: Lowest in Decades
The Fed’s 3 March rate cut has dropped U.S. mortgage interest rates to historic lows just as real estate’s prime selling season begins. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has fallen from 3.45 percent to the never-before-seen 3.29, according to lender Freddie Mac. Mortgage rates are closely linked to those of 10-year Treasury...
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New York Fed Expands Repo Loan Fund
The New York Federal Reserve is increasing its available amount of overnight loans to banks from $100 billion to $150 billion through Thursday of last week to ensure that banks and trading houses have the cash needed to keep the markets from melting down. As well as increasing the overnight amount, the bank also is...