Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news the Dow fell around 0.5% after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke disappointed investors hoping for more stimulus to revive the US economy. See more here on the Dow's fall here at Bloomberg.
Bernanke told Congress that inflation was higher and nearer the central bank's informal target than it was in August last year when he agreed to a second round of Quantitative Easing or money printing to buy US government bonds. That programme of QE II ended on June 30 and stock markets have been hoping for QE III to boost demand for stocks and bonds. See more here on Bernanke's comments at Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, US retail sales rose just 0.1% in June. Consumer confidence remains very weak as house prices are falling again and unemployment is over 9%. See more here at Bloomberg.
Elsewhere, the stalemate is dragging on in talks between Republican and Democrat leaders in Washington over raising the debt ceiling. Barack Obama is expected to announce fresh crisis talks over the weekend at Camp David to come to an agreement well before the August 2 deadline for a default by the US government that would unleash financial chaos on global markets. See more here at Reuters.
Amid the tensions in both America and Europe, gold hit a fresh record high of almost US$1,600/oz and some think it may head for US$2,000/oz as investors look for safe havens that are not in either US dollars or Euros. See more here at Reuters.
Moody's decision to put America's AAA credit rating on review for downgrade also increased demand for gold. See more here at Bloomberg.
Meanwhile in China, authorities there have moved to clamp down on runaway inflation in apartment prices in secondary cities. New bans have been put in place on multiple property ownership as the government struggles to contain inflation. See more here at Bloomberg.
In line with the fall on Wall St and a move to take 'risk off' the table, the New Zealand dollar came off its record highs of 85 USc set yesterday after higher than expected GDP growth. It was around 84.1 USc in early trade.
(Updates with links, Moody's downgrade warning)
No chart with that title exists.
7 Comments
Sorry for going off on a tangent, but I read this and thought of the PIs over here who think property ponzis are the right way to go.
U.S. may have its AAA long-term and A-1+ short-term credit ratings cut by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.