LONDON (Reuters) – Gold hit a fresh record high near $1,150 an ounce on Wednesday, boosting precious metals across the board, as a dip in the dollar index added to momentum buying as prices broke through key technical resistance levels.
In non-U.S. dollar terms, gold also climbed, hitting multi-month highs when priced in the euro, sterling and the Australian dollar.
Spot gold hit a high of $1,147.45 and was at $1,146.05 an ounce at 0948 GMT, against $1,141.50 late in New York on Tuesday.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange also hit a record $1,148.10 and were later up $7.10 at $1,146.40 an ounce. Read more…
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stock markets advanced Monday as better-than-expected news about U.S. retailers buoyed confidence in the world’s largest economy and gold prices hit a new record. European shares were modestly higher.
Major markets across Asia rose between 1 percent and 2 percent as the foundering dollar led investors to pour more money into commodities and shares of resource companies. Gold broke above $1,130 for the first time and oil traded higher around $77.
Encouraging quarterly reports Friday from large U.S. retail chains, as well as The Walt Disney Co., helped ease investor worries about American consumer spending, long a major source of growth for Asia’s export-oriented economies. Read more…
SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) – Warren Buffett is finally spending some of Berkshire Hathaway’s cash hoard. And he’s buying a railroad company. As the greatest investor of our generation, does his latest acquisition signal a market bottom?
Dissecting the Deal
Buffett’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A – News), agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI – News) for $100 a share valuing the deal at $44 billion.
Over the past year, Burlington’s stock price has lagged the performance of its peer benchmark, the Dow Jones Transportation Average (NYSEArca: IYT – News). Read more…
The U.S. economy got to play “trick or treat” early and ahead of the Halloween festivities with several economic indicators. New home sales and consumer confidence clearly were tricks with numbers being very disappointing. But equity investors got a treat on Thursday as real GDP posted a stronger-than-expected 3.5 percent annualized gain for the quarter. The relatively strong number sent the “equities-are-in-correction” traders scurrying for cover—or rather short covering for the day. Nonetheless, the question remains—how strong is the recovery and is there reason to believe equities are a little ahead of where economic growth is really headed? Read more…
If you’re like most Americans, you don’t have a secret bank account in Switzerland where you stash money to keep it out of IRS hands.
Being out of the foreign tax-shelter loop isn’t such a bad thing. Uncle Sam recently signed a new tax treaty with that Alpine nation that should help U.S. collectors crack down on tax-evading owners of a foreign bank accounts.
But there still are plenty of legal tax havens for law-abiding taxpayers. Even better, most regular Joe and Jane taxpayers can easily take advantage of them. Read more…
The declining value of the U.S. dollar has been making financial headlines lately. After hitting an all-time low in April 2008, the dollar rallied strongly in last fall’s financial crisis as investors sought safe havens, but it has once again fallen as the world economy has recovered. As of Oct. 19, 2009, the IntercontinentalExchange Dollar Index has fallen about 15% from the high it reached in early March.
he causes behind the weak dollar are many and complex, but essentially this means that investors around the world have become less confident in the future stability of the dollar and more confident in other currencies. The effects of the weakening dollar can also be complicated, but the upshot is that it’s cheaper for people in other countries to buy American-made goods and services and more expensive for Americans to buy things sold in other currencies. Read more…
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The Group of Seven rich nations urged China on Saturday to strengthen the yuan, but gave no sign of how it might overcome Chinese resistance to that suggestion or resolve other tensions over global currency rates. The G7 dominated economic policymaking for two decades, but Saturday’s meeting underlined that it could no longer solve global problems without the cooperation of fast-growing economies in the developing world such as China. G7 finance ministers and central bankers, in a statement after they met in Istanbul, said Beijing should boost its tightly controlled currency to help correct imbalances in global trade, which have been blamed for fuelling the financial crisis. Read more…
It is only a number — the stock market equivalent of an appliance chain’s millionth customer, or the gazillionth hamburger served at McDonald’s.
Still, the Dow, which closed up 124.17 points, at 9,789.36, on Monday, is within reach of 10,000. Who would have thought?
At the depths of Wall Street’s crisis, when traders were despairing and shares of Citigroup were trading for just over a dollar, Dow 5,000 seemed a likelier prospect than this.
But now, one of the most-watched measures of the financial world is on the cusp of jumping back to five-digit territory.
That does not mean the economy’s problems are over, or that 401(k)’s are going to be made whole anytime soon. In fact, this milestone could even stall the rally if enough investors use it as an opportunity to cash in their gains, analysts say. Read more…
The forex (FX) market has many similarities to the equity markets; however, there are some key differences. This article will show you those differences and help you get started in forex trading.
Choosing a Broker
There are many forex brokers to choose from, just as in any other market. Here are some things to look for:
- Low Spreads – The spread, calculated in “pips“,  is the difference between the price at which a currency can be purchased and the price at which it can be sold at any given point in time. Forex brokers don’t charge a commission, so this difference is how they make money. In comparing brokers, you will find that the difference in spreads in forex is as great as the difference in commissions in the stock arena.
Bottom line: Lower spreads save you money! Read more…
There has been a boom in the Forex trading business due to unlimited entrants to this business. Forex is basically dealing in Foreign Exchange. The investors are able to purchase and sell currencies depending on the conditions. Buying and selling of currencies help the investor in getting good returns on the investments. Just like the stock market, you need to buy when the market is low and sell when the market is high.
Anyways, it is not as easy as explained; otherwise everyone would join the Forex market. But if you have spent enough time, researched and done your homework, it would easier for you to understand the FOREX and also the nature of the business. To be successful in this business, you should be able to predict the market, its changes, keep track of the rise and fall of currencies. Read more…
