| Silver also moved down moderately on lack of demand from industrial ...
Gold declined in Asia today as a strengthening dollar reduced the appeal of the precious metals as an alternative investment.
Gold prices eased to to 809.90 dollar an ounce and silver was little changed at 14.38 dollar an ounce. February-delivery gold on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 1.90 dollar to 813.50 dollar.
.
McCain, Clinton win state battles
For the victors on Saturday, the prize is a jolt of energy in a race where momentum has been short-lived. Republican contenders head to Florida for a January 29 primary, while Democrats focus on next Saturday's primary in South Carolina. Both parties then turn their attention to the critical February 5 "Super Tuesday" round of 22 state contests. Clinton won the Nevada Democratic race, 51% to 45%, with turnout reported to surpass 115,000 voters. "We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign that appealed to people's hopes instead of their fears," Obama said in a statement. "That's the campaign we'll take to South Carolina and across America in the weeks to come." South Carolina conservatives McCain's win in South Carolina comes after a win in New Hampshire and was fuelled by support from conservatives, with seven in 10 voters in the state primary describing themselves that way, according to exit polls.
Bank stocks pull bourse down
AUSTRALIA'S banking stocks continued to drag on the local market as a return to Wall Street-led anxiety peeled away gains made in this week's bounce. The Australian market tumbled by more than 2 per cent within the first half hour of trade yesterday. Despite regaining some ground in the session, the losses were seen in all sectors except resources and energy. The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 78.2 points lower at 5606.6, down 1.4 per cent. The All Ordinaries closed 68.4 down at 5679.8. This came after Thursday's rally, which pushed the benchmark indices 2.6 per cent higher. Yesterday's performance followed another negative session on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 175 points, or 1.4 per cent. This was triggered by unsettling comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who warned of slower economic growth and more credit-related write-downs.
Palestinian Aide Suggests Kosovo a Model
If this doesn't happen, we have another option," he said, noting Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia earlier this week. "Kosovo is not better than Palestine," he added. "If the whole world, the United States, the European Union, the majority of its states, have embraced the independence of Kosovo, why shouldn't this happen with Palestine as well?" Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian leadership is discussing the proposal. However, Abbas reacted coolly to the idea, saying in a statement that he remained committed to reaching a negotiated peace agreement this year. "If we are unable to do that ... we will return to our Arab (brothers) to take the appropriate decision," he said. The chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia, quickly quashed the idea of a unilateral decision and said such a proposal was never discussed by the Palestinian leadership.
Mkt Watch : Investors’ playground, traders’ graveyard
The market is displaying all the classic signs of a post sell-off syndrome. A v-shaped relief rally, spikes in volatility, retest of lower levels, low trading volumes and aversion to mid- and small-caps. This is exactly what you would have expected to see. These patterns call for a different tactical approach on part of investors. In a market that has clearly not stabilised yet, traders should either refrain from trading or cut down their trade sizes drastically. Equally, if they have to trade they should be extremely nimble and book small gains whenever they get them. This is not the time to be greedy. Compulsive traders should avoid positional trades and trade with narrow stop losses so that they can minimise losses if the market turns against them, which is quite likely. This market could indeed be a trader's graveyard with the Nifty gyrating wildly between a big band of, say, 4,500-5,400.
We're on course, Bush assures voters
The President used his last annual State of the Union address to defend his deeply unpopular handling of what US voters see as their top two concerns - the nearly five-year-old Iraq war and economic turmoil. "In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth, but in the short run we can all see that growth is slowing," he said, urging Congress to speed approval of a $US150 billion ($168 billion) stimulus package he agreed with political leaders last week. On Iraq, Mr Bush defended his decision of a year ago for a surge of 30,000 more troops into the war-torn country, and warned that troop withdrawal would leave political and security progress there in ruins. "Having come so far and achieved so much, we must not allow this to happen," he declared, adding that US forces were starting to come home and that more would do so this year as their role in Iraq changed.
2007 Wrap-Up
Corporate bond spreads were again mixed, with the spread on an index of junk bonds ending the week about 25 bps narrower. December 24 - Bloomberg (Jeremy R. Cooke): "U.S. state and local government borrowing will drop to about $100 million during this holiday-shortened week...after municipal-bond sales reached an all-time high during 2007... Issuance of state and local bonds due in more than 13 months reached about $428 billion for the year through last week, based on Thomson Financial data... The preliminary total is 5% more than the $408 billion record set in 2005." There were no corporate debt issues this week. December 28 - Bloomberg (Junko Fujita): "Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and 30 other issuers from Iceland to Australia drove yen-denominated bond sales in Japan to a seven-year high as they took advantage of the lowest rates in the industrialized world.
HSBC to set up brokerage in UAE equity markets
The company, to be called HSBC Middle East Securities, will offer UAE domestic market brokerage services to both institutional and retail investors. The company is expected to begin trading for institutions by the end of 2007, and to offer retail brokerage services in 2008. Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA), the regulator for the UAE's securities markets, recently granted HSBC authorisation to establish the brokerage company. The authorisation is subject to the various legal and infrastructural requirements meeting the approval of ESCA, as well ADSM and DFM. With this approval, HSBC is poised to become the first global bank on the UAE's exchanges. HSBC already buys and sells UAE shares on behalf of Western institutions through third party brokers. In addition, HSBC is a sub-custodian on both ADSM and DFM, and this service will continue to be provided by the bank's specialist sub-custody operation.
Conservative wildcard a hit with young voters
My grocery bill is more than double what it was last year. Next year I won't be able to eat groceries! If the people in this country don't wake up and vote for another one of those same big money (which means they spend all of your money) thieves and crooks then this country will go into the deepest depression you have ever seen. Hyper-inflation will run rampant and people will starve. If the Chinese wanted to, it could happen today - we have given them that much power over us. Not only the young like Ron Paul, us older folks with brains like him too. Sadly, most older folks don't have any brains at all. Like the entire Iowa GOP. Those people are monsters. .
|
