It’s a busy day for me as I wrap up my gold report for next week. Here is some reading you might enjoy …
Fact of The Day
Americans, trained to pay the advertised price, have taken to haggling in these hard economic times. America’s Research Group, a South Carolina pollster, says 72% of 1,000 consumers interviewed in February have haggled in the past year (31% is the historical average) and they’ve gotten deals 80% of the time; last year, only half the retailers they took a shot at caved in.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Goldman Sachs has captured the American government. That’s the take-away I get from Caroline Baum’s Bloomberg story, “Obama Bulks Up ‘Too Big to Fail’ With Steroids”.
I recommend you read Jesse’s post today on why deflation probably won’t last. I’ll be the first to admit we’re in deflation now, but, as Jesse writes …
Given that the US is an enormous net debtor, it would be suicidal for the monetary authority to choose deflation as the Japanese did for their own particular reasons. We may experience a brief period of deflation as did the US in the early 1930’s in which the money supply actually contracts, but this is much less likely now because the Fed has no external standards with which to contend.
In Other News …
Global recession nearing bottom, OECD says
The deepest global recession in over 60 years is close to bottoming out, but recovery will be weak unless governments do more to remove uncertainty over banks’ balance sheets, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Wednesday.
In its half-yearly economic outlook, the Paris-based organization said it expects its member countries’ economies to shrink by 4.1 percent this year, with only government rescue measures heading off an even worse decline.
Metals ‘to Suffer’ as China Ends Stockpiling Drive
Metals prices may decline in the next three months as China, the world’s biggest user, begins to run down inventories that were built up earlier this year, according to Francisco Blanch at Merrill Lynch & Co. “China has been accumulating inventories of commodities for the last six months or so,” Blanch, head of global commodity research at Merrill, said today in an interview. “This accumulation of inventories now needs to be cleared off. End-user demand in China has not really picked up.”
Japan’s Shipments of Copper Wire and Cable Plunge to 34-Year Low in May Japan’s copper wire and cable shipments plunged 31 percent in May from a year earlier to the lowest level in more than 34 years on slumping demand, the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers’ Association said.
Global oil and gas E&P spending seen down 15 pct
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil and gas producers will cut spending more sharply than expected this year because of the slump in North American natural gas prices, analysts at Barclays Capital said on Monday.
Spending globally on exploration and production is expected to shrink by 15 percent in 2009 from the previous year, compared to the 12 percent drop the companies had expected in December, Barclays’ analysts James Crandell and James West said in a report on their semi-annual survey of 402 energy companies.
Energy companies have delayed or canceled many projects as oil prices tumbled from their record highs reached in July 2008. That has erased about half the price in shares of oilfield service providers such as Schlumberger Ltd and Halliburton Co.
Nuclear nations rush to lock in uranium deals
TORONTO (Reuters) - A global shift toward nuclear power is prompting countries to rush to lock in long-term access to tight supplies of uranium, and China and India look to be the next players to get in on the action.
Areva to Double Output by 2012; Prices to Set Future Expansion
(Bloomberg) — Areva SA, the world’s third-largest miner of uranium, aims to almost double production within three years by increasing output in Namibia and Kazakhstan to help plug a future global supply deficit of the nuclear fuel.
The company, which produced 6,300 metric tons of uranium last year, forecast output of 7,500 tons this year and 12,000 tons in three years’ time, Sebastien de Montessus, director of Paris-based Areva’s mining business unit, said yesterday in a phone interview. Further expansion beyond 2012, particularly in Niger, depends on prices, he said.
Related Posts
- Wednesday News Roundup (04/29/09)
- News and Links for Friday — Get Ready for the 4th of July (07/03/09)
- News You Can Use for Wednesday (06/10/09)
- News for Wednesday (07/22/09)
- News and Chart for Wednesday (07/29/09)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean, thanx for the free newsletter on gold & miners. Bought
GDX & FCX on Weds and there’re going up. Gold going 1300
and beyond throughout next year.
You’ve been really accurate in your predictions and they helped
me a lot aside from your $25 oil. Thank for everything.
hero
Hi, I don’t remember saying that oil was going to $25 (that I remember — feel free to correct me with a link). Back when oil was tumbling down, I said that if it cracked support at $32, speculators could drive it even lower, but it obviously oil didn’t do that. So you might have me confused with someone else. That happens sometimes. I once was speaking at an investment conference and an older gentleman came up and thanked me profusely afterward, praising my calls on this and that. In the course of our discussion, I realized that HE thought I was Larry Edelson. I didn’t correct him because he was obviously having such a good time meeting Larry.
So, you may have me confused with someone who called oil to go to $25. Or maybe you are thinking of me, in which case you’re welcome to whatever you glean from my columns.
Where will oil go now, that’s the question. I called its recent top, but since then I’ve been expecting it to go to $60, and oil seems determined to make a liar oout of me (again!). You win some, you lose some.
all the best, Sean