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Fannie and Freddie Back In The News...

* Strange trading days... * U.K. Retail Sales surprise.... * Norway's GDP prints strong! * A CDO lesson... ** Fannie and Freddie Back In The News... Good day... And a Tub Thumpin' Thursday to you! Don't know why... I just felt like it should be a Tub Thumpin' Thursday! I hit the wall yesterday, as I went home, and fell asleep at 3 o'clock, and didn't wake up till night time! Watched a few innings of my beloved Cardinals, wanted desperately to stay up and watch the May-Walsh beach volleyball game, but went right back to bed! So... I should be rested, eh? One would think so, but with the treatments I take, they just simply wipe me out! But... Hey! I always said that sleep was the greatest thing... I just get to enjoy more of it, right? OK... Another day of strange trading... As I signed off yesterday, the euro had given up it's previous day's gains, but found some terra firma at 1.47 and then rallied in the afternoon... If you guess right, as I have not done so this week, you can catch a great price to sell, and buy, all in the same day!...

Published Thu, Aug 08 2008 8:09 AM by Chuck Butler

Filed under: Dollar, Brazilian Real, Oil, Gold, Euro, Norway, Retail Sales, Renminbi, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Collateralized Debt Obligation, I.O.U.S.A

Retail Sales Disappoint Again...

* Dollar rally continues... * U.S. data continues to be weak... * Gold and the A$... * Sterling melts away... ** Retail Sales Disappoint... Good day... And a Thunderin' Thursday to you! Michael Phelps didn't swim in any finals yesterday, so no Gold for the U.S! I'm just floored by this kid! My oldest son, Andrew, was a pretty good swimmer in his day, but my goodness, this kid is on a different planet! OK... Well, front and center this morning, we have a report that just printed that shows U.S. Home Foreclosures rose 55% in July. Bank seizures almost tripled according to RealtyTrac Inc. That's sad folks, simply sad... I look at this report and shake my head in disgust for Alan Greenspan. Yes, Big Al Greenspan is the root of all evil in the housing meltdown... Sure there were the greedy folks that booked loans that shouldn't have happened and all that, but down at the root of the meltdown you'll find Big Al's picture!...

Published Thu, Aug 08 2008 9:03 AM by Chuck Butler

Filed under: Dollar, Brazilian Real, Inflation, Gold, European Central Bank, Retail Sales, Eurozone, Foreclosures, Consumer Debt

Oil Price Slides!

* Big Ben in a predicament! * The euro retreats after new high... * Retail Sales disappoint! * Yen and francs on the menus again! ** Oil Price Slides! Good day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! 3 straight days without rain here in St. Louis! WOW! It did however, rain on the currencies' parade yesterday. About mid-morning, the brakes were applied to the run on the dollar, and the car was put into reverse. Retail Sales disappointed, and PPI is not anything to laugh about... All that and more, as we head into the day after a 15-inning All-Star Game! Front and Center though is the good cop, bad cop thing that played out with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke (bad cop) and SEC Chairman Cox (good cop)... Big Ben sent the dollar packing in the morning with his statement that highlighted the Fed's predicament... Big Ben noted the parts of financial markets remained seriously disrupted (which screams, no rate hike), but that dollar weakness had helped cause inflation to rise (Here he goes again trying to blame everyone else for the Fed's creation and feeding of inflation... Oh well, this statement screams, no rate cut!). The currencies all took turns taking a swing at the piñata (dollar)... And... It looked like the volcano was about to blow... Oh, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know where I'm a going to go when the volcano blows! (Ahhh, a little Jimmy Buffett on a Wonderful Wednesday!)...

Published Wed, Jul 07 2008 8:55 AM by Chuck Butler

Filed under: Oil, Euro, Ben Bernanke, Yen, Swiss franc, Carry Trade, Retail Sales, IndyMac

Questioning The Fed's Rhetoric...

* More dollar strength... * Retail Sales surprise... * SARB raises rates! * Gold on the slippery slope... **Questioning The Fed's Rhetoric... Good day... And a Happy Friday to one and all! It will be a Fantastico Friday (Hopefully) for the boys and girls in the St. Louis office, as we head to Busch Stadium tonight for a Cardinals baseball game... We even have a special guest that will be with us, so party on Wayne... Party on Garth! Well... Things went a little crazy on the desk while I was away yesterday... When I returned home last night, I had a ton of emails from the Big Boss, Frank Trotter, and that's usually a sign that things didn't go well! Frank plays hockey on Friday mornings, and said he will call me to bring me up to date on his way to hockey......

Published Fri, Jun 06 2008 9:10 AM by Chuck Butler

Filed under: Dollar, Inflation, Gold, The Fed, Citigroup, Retail Sales, FOMC

Dollar Receives Some Stimulus...

* Dollar receives some stimulus... * G8 to support $ over the weekend... * India surprises with a rate increase... * BOJ likely to keep rates unchanged... **Dollar receives some stimulus..... Good day... We had a pretty calm day in the markets yesterday as the dollar drifted lower vs. most of the major currencies. But when the Europeans picked up the trading overnight they all but wiped out any advances the currencies had made and the dollar is now sitting slightly higher than it was trading at this time yesterday morning. But I will get to that later; let me start this morning's Pfennig off with some comments Chuck left me on the markets as he signed off his computer last night: "OK... So quite a few of you liked my conspiracy theories yesterday, and even a few had one of their own! This whole mess of Bernanke and Paulson finally sitting up and taking notice in June is just too much for me. I think there's got to be a story here that we don't know about... Yet!...

Published Thu, Jun 06 2008 9:29 AM by Chuck Butler

Filed under: Dollar, Euro, European Central Bank, Retail Sales, Bank of Japan, India, G8