Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the Dow is down more than 220 points or 1.7% in late trade as fears about the global economy and Europe's debt crisis returned to haunt investors overnight. See more here at Reuters on the market's slump.
Europe's GDP fell 0.3% in the December quarter and there are doubts that the 75% of Greece's creditors needed to sign on to a 70% plus debt haircut will do it before a Thursday night deadline to avoid a Greek default. Just 20% of creditors have agreed to the deal so far. See more here at Bloomberg.
Continental European stock markets fell more than 3% with concern also growing about Spain's economic and budget position after it unilaterally announced a budget deficit blowout. See more here at Bloomberg on the biggest fall in European stocks since November.
China's decision to cut its growth target to 7.5% from 8% has also unnerved commodity markets, which fell more than 1.4% overnight -- the biggest fall this year. See more here at Bloomberg. The auction overnight of milk powder on Fonterra's auction platform reflected some of those concerns, with prices falling 0.9% in US dollar terms.
US 10 year bond yields fell by the most in 3 weeks as fears about global growth returned and fears about inflation receded. Some local economists said last week that interest rates may be on the rise as the global economy recovered, but this week local wholesale interest rates have been flat to falling as the global doubts returned. See more here at Bloomberg.
However, the effects of that fall in Fonterra's milk powder prices were cushioned somewhat as the New Zealand dollar also fell overnight, as it often does in tune with appetites for risk on global markets and with expectations about global growth.
The New Zealand dollar fell to 81.1 USc this morning and is well down from over 84 USc last week. See our interactive currencies chart below.
The Australian dollar also fell overnight, in part driven by confirmation by the Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday afternoon of its easing bias, in case the global economy slows further.
Finally, 'Sir' Allen Stanford, the Texan cricketing billionaire who used a 'bank' in Antigua to run a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme, was convicted of fraud overnight.
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15 Comments
Seems like the swivel-eyed high priestess of the Libertarian cult was something of a philosophical hypocrit:
''I wonder how many would continue to worship at the shrine of Ayn Rand if they knew that towards the end of her life she signed on for both Medicare and social security. She had railed furiously against both programmes, as they represented everything she despised about the intrusive state. Her belief system was no match for the realities of age and ill health''.
It appears that Atlas may well have had feet of clay. Monbiot in the Guardian places 'objectivism' under the spotlight in an excellent little read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/05/new-right-ayn-rand-…
Re. Ayn Rand, Philly was onto it in this old 10at10, here:
and see #8, interesting interview vid.
But wait Bernard - there is more to the story of Rand's breathtaking hypocrisy than that - she actually sucked at the teat of the state UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME to try and make sure she was not exposed.
''Rand constantly railed against government help as something that turned people into morally weak parasites who fed off society. WELL. When the time came for Rand to sign up for Social Security and Medicare, she did so — but under the name Ann O’Connor. If she was willing be a morally weak parasite on the ‘dole’ of the United States government, apparently she wanted to keep it a secret''
http://underthemountainbunker.com/2011/04/19/screw-you-me-myself-and-i-…
Most of the mainstream eccnomist talk here in the wake of the RBA decision is that the Europe crisis is now solved, and things will steadily improve.
I, for one, am far from convinced that the Euro mess is solved. The issues are far too deep and systemic to have been solved by throwing some money around
The Ports CEO should be made redundant ( no pay out, those sort are way overpaid ) or he should be casusalised - "Hey dude don't bother coming in tomorrow or the next 2 days for that matter" - then call him at 11pm Friday night for a 5 am start in the morning but just for a couple of hours.
Bet he would slither away real fast in search of another gravy train.
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