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  • Brazil Throws The Cat Among The Pigeons!

    In This Issue..

    * Real leads Commodity Currencies to the woodshed!
    * Niall Ferguson speaks his mind...
    * BOC leaves rates and statement unchanged...
    * Bollard gives the green light!

    Good day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! How many people out there know about "network neutrality"? Well, if you don't know, you're about to find out tomorrow, when it will be decided upon... I'm not going to get into it, because after you find out what it is you'll know why I didn't explain... All I'll say is that this is just another thing that's flying below the radar that's about to be thrown in our laps...

    OK... Well... Yesterday, after signing off and hitting the 'send button' for the Pfennig, I saw a story that shot across the desk, and then a follow up was sent to me by Don Ries later in the morning. The story was about the Brazilian Gov't imposing a 2% tax on capital inflows... This was done in an attempt to slow down the Brazilian economy by slowing down the "hot money" that's going into the Brazilian stock market by foreigners... Talk about throwing a cat among the pigeons!...
  • Desperately Seeking Yield...

    In This Issue..

    * Currencies rally...
    * More on the BRIC's...
    * New Zealand's GDP contracts..
    * Bernanke gets grilled!

    Good day... And a Happy Friday to one and all! The end of what seemed to be a very long week... The last weekend in June, can you believe that? Next week, we'll be getting ready for the 4th of July celebrations! WOW!

    Well... What a volatile week it has been in the currencies! Up, down, all around, and settling back to levels that we saw before the Fed's FOMC meeting earlier this week. Suddenly, investors are looking for yield again... Looks like they are "Desperately Seeking (not Susan) Yield! And why not? The Fed, and the Bank of Canada (BOC) have come out and said that there will be no interest rate hikes until we've turned quite a few pages on the 2010 calendar....
  • Removing Fed Rate Hike Bets...

    * The euro rallies 1-cent! * U.S Data continues to be a drag... * Canada's Carney underpins the loonie... * RBS issues a warning! **Removing Fed Rate Hike Bets... Good day... And a Happy Friday to one and all! Looks like it could be a Fantastico Friday as traders are Finally coming around to Chuck's way of thinking regarding Fed rate hikes... And as traders remove their bets for aggressive Fed rate hikes, the luster begins to fade on the dollar rally. The meetings are over for this week (they start up again next week!), YAHOO! I get to spend the day on the trading desk... I've missed everyone! OK... Front and Center this morning, we have the euro trading 1-cent higher, knock, knock knocking on Heaven's Door, I mean, the 1.56 handle. As I said in the intro, it appears that traders don't have the stomach to hold on to their bets that the Fed will aggressively raise interest rates this year. Recall, the other day, I told you that the bets were ratcheting up and had reached 75 BPS of rate hikes this year... I doubt we have any... In fact, as I told you the other day too, I believe that when the dust settles on the fact that the Fed isn't going to raise rates, things will have gotten so bad here that the Fed will be entertaining thoughts of cutting rates again!...