Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news the New Zealand dollar rose to 76.2 USc overnight, its highest level since July 2008.
Financial markets are transfixed by the prospect of a second round of Quantitative Easing or money printing (QEII) by the US Federal Reserve after it commented that it was set to do more to boost the US economy and wanted to revive inflationary expectations.
The Australian dollar rose to a post-float (1983) high of 99.3 USc overnight, moving up as investors looked to exit the devaluing currencies such as the US dollar and Yen. Risk appetites are also elevated as the US stock market surged on hopes QEII will revive the world's largest economy.
The gold price meanwhile rose to fresh record highs around US$1,370/oz on fears about competitive devaluations of Fiat currencies.
Worsening the concerns about the currency wars, China posted a 25% increase in exports and increased its foreign reserves to US$2.65 billion. America and some others are blaming China for not allowing its currency to rise quickly vs the US dollar. A strong export performance and rising currency reserves are signs China's currency remains undervalued and that the pressure will remain on for a revaluation, or for competitive devaluations in retaliation.
Chile is expected to intervene to try to pull its currency lower vs the US dollar and Thailand announced details of its new bond tax on foreign investors, includuing a 15% withholding tax on capital gains and interest payments.
Back in New Zealand, a Parliamentary report has warned of Peak Oil and a supply crunch from 2012.
24 Comments
Bleeding heck...I just found out every American born today pops out owing $43000us. Does that mean the debt decreases if the birth rate goes up!....have I discovered a secret way to reduce the American debt.......
You nailed it Wolly
The Largest Financial Fraud in World History!
If QE was going to be the savior of the system, there would be no need for this:"
Standard Chartered plans £3.3bn rights issue" or this : JPMorgan chief defends home foreclosures" etc.What is it that the Americans produce that QE will encourage their export markets to buy? Whatever they manufacture can, and will be, made faster and cheaper elsewhere. So QE is just going to stimulate the already-stimulated markets at the expense of their own.
Does anyone know how widespread the failure of wheat crops in Oz is? Heard from a WA farmer that grows around 15,000 acres that his crop is almost a total writeoff due to lack of rain. He said many farmers around him will go broke over it.
co-- if there are to be any crop failure,s it won,t be from lack of rain--Australia has had exceptional+unseasonal rain for the last 3 months and it,s showing no signs of letting up- Brisbane on flood watch today---all our dams at 100%---only a small area in west aussie under drought conditions
Thanks for the map. As Murphy's Law will have it, the farmer I refer to is east of Perth - in the area recorded on the map as 'lowest on record'. :-(
According to the map it looks like a significant area of the WA wheatbelt is affected. Good to hear it isn't Oz-wide.
Yes Casual Observer there is even talk of significant culls to the dairy herds to the south of Perth, because of record low rainfall and the resulting cuts to irrigation allocations.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/8078466/drought-will-send-cows-to-slaughter/
The foreclosure fraud in the US continues to be the best entertainment on the internet!
In one deposition taken in Houston, a foreclosure supervisor with Litton Loan couldn't define basic terms like promissory note, mortgagee, lien, receiver, jurisdiction, circuit court, plaintiff's assignor or defendant. She testified that she didn't know why a spouse might claim interest in a property, what the required conditions were for a bank to foreclose or who the holder of the mortgage note was. "I don't know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents," she said at one point.
Very sad what the US has come to.
House sales down 33% in Sept..haaaaaaaaaaahahaha....must be the spring marketing drive.
Kate, you are expecting too much intelligence, yes it is sad, but for entertaining watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjuNgBKloFE&feature=player_embedded
Hi GT - link had been broken - shame as I need a good laugh after reading this;
We got problems....
Kate - worth a try - this is the site where I got this link from:
http://ilene.typepad.com/ourfavorites/2010/10/meaningless-monday-rethin…
Within this upper third of the text is in blue "not a joke", click on this, is about a street interview of Americans and shows their intelligence.
The questions "What religion have Buddhist monks" or "what currency has the UK" cannot be answered......also New Zealand is considered a country of the axis of evil.....
It is really a good lough, but with a tear of sadness in the eyes.
China's foreign reserves aren't as high as I thought , $US 2.65 billion ! Heck , that wouldn't even bail out our ACC black hole .............. Ummmmm , leave the " T " in trillion out again , Bernard . Tch tch !
Gummy Bear stumbles onto a way out of debt crisis....just change the T to a B!...I expect you will be invited to tea at the Whitehouse Gummy Bear..front cover of Times mag...Nobel prize in economics..........
No , putcha glasses on ! Bernard put the Chinese reserves at $ 2.65 billion , I said it's trillion , not billion . ........ Comprende ?
".....sagging(govt) revenue streams...."
Oh dear...what can the matter be...three fat ladies are stuck in the ....no that's not right....where has Bill's 6 part strategy run off to....why are the peasants not splurging.....Bolly's fault....got to be his fault.....I mean to say the govt has invested soooo much in the spin effort(having borrowed most of it)...surely you bloody lot could get out there and spend and splurge on credit...can't you!
Today is International Dolphin Day ! Anyone told them ?
Hey Kunzie , here's a manufacturing plant to set up in Kaikoura : A Dolphin Cannery ! 100 % Pure , NZ Dolphin , " Flipper " in a tin . This could be your true porpoise in life , Walter .
I reckon the market is ripe for a real new twist on giving the tourists a good shake for their dollar...a hotel with inbuilt 'earthquake' activity..."come and stay and enjoy the sway...we give it heaps every day..when you leave we make you pay" Gummy Bear would love it here.
Yes you two, we go with the trend - available now in our ArtGallery for tourists next to R. Hide, Bin Laden, Georg Bush jun, Bernanke, Greenspan, B.Netanyahu, M. Ahmadinejad a.o. - 22 ct gold plated handcarved rimu 12cm high sculpture from another famous – exclusively - Wolly (bullish but seating) from Blenheim slightly bigger 14cm made not 22ct gold leafed - but of 98% pure polished, shiny copper. all for only US$ 1'295.- 15% GST incl. All mounted on a 3cm thick punamu base.
NOTE: Price in US$ - so price could be a lot cheaper tomorrow. Payment in gold nuggets preferred.
Gummy bears aren't available - made from plastic - too cheap, (China Import)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore uses the currency rather than a benchmark interest rate as its main tool to manage inflation. All but one of 14 economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected the central bank to forgo a more aggressive strengthening in the Singapore dollar, a decision that may have helped support overseas sales by manufacturers including Hi-P International Ltd.
“Singapore is the most vulnerable Asian country to the slowdown in the global trade cycle,” Prior-Wandesforde said. “The widening of the band initially will be seen as hawkish but longer-term may actually be used in a more dovish direction as and when the economy slows quite sharply.”
Property Curbs
At its April monetary policy review, Singapore’s central bank said it would shift the local dollar to a stronger range to trade in and sought an appreciation thereafter, the first such combined move in its history.
Singapore in August announced measures to cool the property market, including increasing down payments for second mortgages and imposing a stamp duty on property held for less than three years to curb speculation.
“Domestic cost pressures are rising, given the high level of resource utilization in the economy and tight labor market in particular, as well as the diminishing boost from the cyclical uplift in productivity seen earlier this year,” the central bank said today. “The balance of risks is weighted towards inflation going forward.”
Korea Holds
The steeper slope will allow a faster pace of appreciation while the wider band will address the increased volatility in the market, said Kit Wei Zheng, a Singapore-based economist at Citigroup Inc. He said today’s policy change was “effectively a form of monetary tightening and reflects concerns about domestic inflation.”
In contrast, the Bank of Korea left borrowing costs unchanged for a third straight month today as an appreciating won threatens export growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Singapore’s inflation accelerated to an 18-month high of 3.3 percent in August. The central bank forecasts price gains may quicken to about 4 percent by the end of 2010 and “stay high” in the first half of 2011, it said today.
The island’s policy move contrasts with Asian nations from Thailand to Japan, which have taken steps in the past month to cool an appreciation in their currencies that is threatening exports. Japan intervened last month to ease gains in the yen and Thailand said this week it will remove a 15 percent tax exemption for foreigners on income from domestic bonds, joining South Korea and Brazil in seeking to slow inflows as capital floods into emerging and Asian economies.
Bellwether Economy
Singapore’s GDP rose a record 18.3 percent in the first half, the trade ministry said. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said the economy may “moderate” in the coming months, citing risks from Europe and the U.S.
“Singapore is typically a bellwether for the region’s export outlook and it is the first to show cracks as global growth slows,” Alvin Liew, an economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, said before the report. Threats to Asian growth include “the fading impact of stimulus packages, stubbornly high unemployment rates and austerity measures that are likely to crimp consumption in the West,” he said.
Manufacturing Cools
Singapore’s economy grew 10.3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, compared with a revised 19.6 percent expansion in the previous three months, the government said. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 24 economists was for a 10.8 percent gain. The 19.8 percent annual rate of contraction last quarter from the previous three months compares with the median forecast for a 15.7 percent decline among 19 economists surveyed.
Manufacturing, which accounts for about a quarter of Singapore’s economy, climbed 12.1 percent from a year earlier in the three months through September, after surging a revised 46.1 percent in the second quarter.
The construction industry gained 6.7 percent, while services grew 10.2 percent. The city’s two casino resorts run by Genting Singapore Plc and Las Vegas Sands Corp. have attracted millions to its gaming centers, while employment growth is boosting spending at malls and restaurants.
The government reiterated its prediction for GDP to rise 13 percent to 15 percent in 2010. That pace would put Singapore in the running to be the world’s fastest-growing nation in 2010.
Poor old Singapore - Maybe we should think long and hard about our RBNZ interest rate only fixation. No nonsense there about the importance of the FX rate. Manufacturing Cools - from 46 to 12 % ! How awful for them - compares with our - 10 %
A parliamentary report warns New Zealand faces a series of oil price shocks, with the first as early as 2012.
The report titled The Next Oil Shock says spiking prices will affect key industries including dairying, tourism and forestry.
It predicts each price shock will be followed by recession, as consumers cut back so they can pay for petrol.
radionz
Why is NZ and Aussie NOT taking the lead on Thorium Reactors?. Its so bloody obvious. We can make this work and be world leaders at it! There you go, how s that for "positive" and "optimistic" ?
Just read these posts and some fit the definition of drivel.
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