Daily Pfennig : Consumer Confidence

Germany & France Post 3rd QTR Growth...

Chuck Butler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:31:01 GMT

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In This Issue..

* Risk Aversion fuels dollar rally yesterday...
* Eurozone growth may stop the Risk Aversion...
* Budget Deficit is a record $176.4 Billion!
* Euro, Swiss, Aussie, Norway, all cheaper today!

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Germany & France Post 3rd QTR Growth...

Good day... And a Happy Friday to one and all! Let's try to make this a Fantastico Friday as well! The Risk Aversion that was creeping into the currency markets yesterday really took hold in the U.S. trading session, which meant the dollar was being bought once more, along with Japanese yen...

It just makes me laugh out loud, when I write that the "safe haven currencies" during Risk Aversion trading are the dollar and yen... These two countries have debt up to their eyeballs, pay no interest on their deposits, and have a leadership deficiency... (ok, before every begins to think that I'm ripping the president again, I'm not... I'm talking about the Central Bank, and lawmakers of each country)

There was good news out of the Eurozone this morning... Both Germany and France followed their previous quarter's growth, with stronger growth in the 3rd QTR... The Eurozone's two largest economies continued to recover from recession in the 3rd QTR, as exports boosted both German and French gross domestic products. I say that, and I want to spit out a raspberry to all those that claim the European Union will collapse because of the strong euro! Neener, neener, neener... The largest economies of the Eurozone can grow, with strong exports even with a strong euro!

OK Chuck, no need to be childish here, let's get back to the growth... Germany's GDP rose 0.7% in the three months to Sept. 30. In France, GDP also grew for the second consecutive quarter, rising 0.3%.

So... Of course this data from the Eurozone put a floor under the euro's decline from yesterday... It will be interesting to see how the U.S. guys look at these growth numbers... The European guys liked them... The U.S. traders though can be very fickle...

And more than that though, I think this might be the thing to put the Risk Aversion to bed... Recent history tells me that whenever Risk Aversion has crept into the markets, any sign that Global growth is back on track, and will lead investors to higher yielding assets, the Risk Aversion ends abruptly... Let's hope that's the case today with these two growth reports from the Eurozone!

Yesterday's data in the U.S. showed that the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims remain above 500,000 per week, and that the Budget Deficit was even worse than the forecast $160 Billion! The Budget Deficit for October totaled $176.4 Billion, which annualized puts us over $2.1 TRILLION! OMG! That awful folks! And you should be writing, calling, or making your way to your representative's next meeting and demanding that they STOP SPENDING MONEY THEY DON'T HAVE!

You know that letter that I said I was going to write to my darling granddaughter, Delaney Grace, apologizing for the lack of freedom and tax burdens that were left to her generation to deal with? Well, I started writing it the other night... What this and the previous administration is doing has no morals, when it comes to leaving the debt to be dealt with by future generations...

OK, it's a Friday, I need to try to remain calm here, and be upbeat! Hmmm... Usually, that means that I pull out a story on Gold... But yesterday was not a good day for the shiny metal, after reaching a new all-time record level of $1,118, it fell more than $10 in the aftermath of the Risk Aversion... See how stupid the Risk Aversion people are? I mean, if you wanted to avert risk, wouldn't you buy Gold?

Any way, colleague, Don Ries, sent me a story that he came across regarding Gold that I thought was quite interesting... The Telegraph in the U.K. printed a story about how Barrick Gold believes we may have reached "peak" Gold already... And by that "peak" I'm talking about the mining of the shiny metal!

"Aaron Regent, president of the Canadian gold giant, said that global output has been falling by roughly 1m ounces a year since the start of the decade. Total mine supply has dropped by 10% as ore quality erodes, implying that the roaring bull market of the last eight years may have further to run. There is a strong case to be made that we are already at 'peak gold'," he told The Daily Telegraph at the RBC's annual gold conference in London."

WOW! Did you get the one line that was in there about how this lack of mining implies that the roaring bull market of the last eight years may have further to run? I think that's putting it conservatively for sure! "may have further to run?" I would say it stronger... But I can't... Or I'm not supposed to! ( our legal beagles read the Pfennig each day!)

OK... That put me back on track to be more upbeat for this Fantastico Friday! Today's data cupboard will yield the Monthly Trade Deficit data, and the U. of Michigan Consumer Confidence index... The Trade Deficit overhang continues to be a problem for the U.S., obviously not as bad as a problem as it was during the go-go days for the consumer...

Traders have become "comfortably numb" with the deficit figures in the U.S. which is a bad thing folks... Traders need to make a stand, and not allow this stuff to just slip under the door, thus allowing larger and larger deficits in the future!

I see the President is in China... I bet he thinks his presence will be the thing that will move the Chinese to allow greater currency flexibility... I just don't see the Chinese getting caught up in the "show" to give in and allow flexibility in their currency, just because the President of the U.S. showed up...

The currencies are rallying this morning VS the dollar. Since I came in and began writing, the euro has climbed higher, albeit a small move higher, it's still moving higher, and thus has stopped the bleeding, that began yesterday morning...

I'm surprised the Aussie dollar isn't really hitting on all 8 this morning, considering the growth numbers in the Eurozone... But I think we might have to wait for the U.S. traders to come in to see the rally in the A$ this morning... It is Saturday in Australia!

The Swiss franc got caught up in the Risk Aversion trading yesterday, and has backed off its ascent to parity... The franc is trading around .9855 this morning, which is more than 1-cent lower than yesterday morning... Wink, wink...

And a country / currency that I drop the ball on all the time, when it comes to talking about it in the Pfennig, is the Norwegian krone... Long time readers know that I truly like Norway, for their fiscal and monetary surplus prowess... And most recently, for their absence from the rolls of those countries that got involved in sub-prime and bad lending practices. Earlier this month, Norway's central bank, the Norges Bank, hiked rates 25 BPS, and is expected to raise them again in a month or two... So, now we have a country that has a strong fiscal and monetary position, no bad banks or loans, and a strong positive interest rate differential to the U.S.... Hmmm...

And then there was this... Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the $700 Billion TARP bailout said the program will "almost certainly result in a loss to taxpayers"... "We need to temper or be realistic about our expectations, a dollar-for-dollar return is just highly unrealistic." Barofsky also said that he's conducting 65 investigations of possible fraud...

OH MY! You're telling me that with the $700 Billion TARP funds that there could have been some fraud involved? I wouldn't have believed it! .... NOT! I bet you thought I had gone softy on you! The whole TARP was fraud to begin with! So, with all the corruption and scandals that have gone in before, the thought that there could be some fraud, should have been a belief that there "would be fraud for sure" when the TARP was issued!

Currencies today 11/13/09: American Style: A$ .9285, kiwi .7370, C$ .9495, euro 1.4890, sterling 1.6685, Swiss .9860, European Style: rand 7.4410, krone 5.62, SEK 6.8660, forint 180.80, zloty 2.76, koruna 17.10, RUB 28.83, yen 89.70, sing 1.3860, HKD 7.75, INR 46.34, China 6.8263, pesos 13.16, BRL 1.73, dollar index 75.39, Oil $77.45, 10-year 3.44%, Silver $17.36, and Gold... $1,109.30

That's it for today... Yes, today is a Friday the 13th... I don't get into that stuff, but if you do, be careful today! We're supposed to have another nice weekend here in St. Louis, weather wise, so we have that going for us! No football game this weekend though for my little buddy, Alex. I saw Chris Gaffney and his son Brendan on TV at the Blues game last night. The Blues lost the game though. UGH! Another week, and well be talking about Thanksgiving getting here so fast! The radio station that plays Christmas music every year, began broadcasting the Christmas music a couple of weeks ago! They used to at least wait until Thanksgiving came and went! Well... Let's get working on having a Fantastico Friday! And a Wonderful Weekend!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Consumer Confidence Drops!

Chuck Butler — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:22:19 GMT

..But First, A Word From Our Sponsor..
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In This Issue..

* The dollar continues to hammer!
* Jim Rogers on the dollar rally...
* C. Fred Bergsten talks of a dollar alternative...
* Lord Monckton's thoughts...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Consumer Confidence Drops!

Good day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! It's still raining here... Quite frankly, I don't know how people that live in rainy areas do it! I don't mind rainy days, as long as they are sprinkled in with the days of sunshine!

Well... The dollar rally that began for a number of rumored reasons continued on yesterday... Remember when I said on Monday that the data this week should show us that the economy is healing somewhat, which would be bad for the dollar? Well, that thought got cold water thrown on it yesterday when Consumer Confidence surprisingly declined last month...

You know how I like to question just what people that were surveyed for this Consumer Confidence report are so confident about? Well, apparently, the Conference Board surveyed the wrong people this month! Consumer confidence in the U.S. declined in October to 47.7 versus expectations of a 53.5 reading. Both consumers' perceptions of current conditions and their expectations for the future declined. Hmmm...

So, Consumer Confidence is fading this month? That sure wasn't the outcome I was expecting... Sure, I would have questioned the dolts that were confident as people that obviously had no idea what was going on, but still, these people that get surveyed had not allowed negativity to enter their minds before, why was this month different? Maybe... Just maybe, people are waking up to smell the coffee that's brewing... And with that I mean, the deficit situation here in the U.S. and all the games the Gov't, the Fed, and Treasury are playing to pull the wool over our eyes... You think? Do you really think that's the case? Because if it is, then the next step is to stand up and shout out loud that you want Government to stop spending! Shout it, Shout it, Shout it out loud! And if they won't listen to you, fire them the next chance you get!

So... The dollar continues with this rally that began Monday mid-morning... One of our fave old friends, Jim Rogers was in the news last night... Let's listen in to what Jim had to say! "Everybody is pessimistic on the dollar, whenever you have everybody on the same side of the boat, you know what you have to do. We may have a rally in the dollar, a decline in Commodity prices or stock prices for a while." He went on to say that while there may be a rally in the dollar, it won't be "sustainable"

He also said something that goes right along with my "Treasury Bubble Story"... Rogers said, that he "certainly wouldn't be buying U.S. Treasuries, and couldn't imagine lending money to the U.S. government for long periods of time."

You know what? I don't think I could imagine that either! So... One has to wonder, just when the Chinese and Japanese begin to feel this way? It's not like we've spent the money and won't have a need to borrow again... The Gov't is finding new ways to spend money! The Budget Deficit is forecast to be $9 Trillion for the next 9 years! And that was before the Gov't got their hands on these "new ways to spend money"!

And getting back to what Jim Rogers said in about the dollar... Isn't this the same thing I've been warning about for a couple of months now? So, this shouldn't sound like anything new to Pfennig Readers... I've warned that the stock market was overbought, and that the U.S. economy was going to do a double dip, which would cause stocks to sell off, and that stocks would probably drag the other risk assets of non-dollar currencies and commodities along with them...

But again, this kind of move, just like the one in 2005, and the one from July 2008 to Feb 2009, will not be sustainable! There's trading themes, and there's trends that are moved by fundamentals... The fundamentals will win out eventually... And when the markets get all the excesses out of their system, the fundamentals will be there like that navy suit... Always in style, always dependable, always there for you!

This next story is very interesting indeed... Here's the skinny... C. Fred Bergsten, the former Treasury executive, is warning that dollar deficits might no longer be funded by foreign nations, including China! He also wrote in the current issue of the Council on Foreign Relations' Foreign Affairs magazine that he would recommend that the White House join with the international community in creating an alternative to the dollar for international trade... What? Are you kidding me?

This is not a joke folks... This is a real person, that is well respected... And he's telling the White House to help create an alternative to the dollar for international trade? That's like telling the fox he can guard the hen house!

That story leads me to this one... Quite a few readers have asked me to talk about this and while I wasn't sure I would, because it's so political, it now plays well with story I just told you about!

Have you heard of Lord Monckton? Well... He gave a speech in Minnesota last week, that you can find on U-Tube. In the speech he says that he has read the global climate change bill, and that if our President signs it, he will be signing away our sovereignty, our prosperity, our freedoms, for global rule...

So... We have the global rule rumors and the global currency rumors back to back! I'm not here to debate what Lord Monckton said, for all I know he's bang on with this thoughts... My thing is to point out that there's smoke... And you know me... Where there's smoke, there's fire...

Is this the method the U.S. will use to get us from beneath this deficit rock? I certainly hope not! And that's all I'll say about that! Now at least!

Remember my rant about allowing bad corporations to fail and not bailing them out? Well, I took a lot of heat on that one from some readers that didn't agree, and that's OK... But to my point... GMAC Financial Services and the Treasury Department are in advanced talks to prop up the lender with its third helping of taxpayer money.

The U.S. government is likely to inject $2.8 billion to $5.6 billion of capital into the Detroit company, on top of the $12.5 billion that GMAC has received since December 2008.

Another example of throwing good tax payer money at bad money...

Remember last week when I told you about the Pay guy (I refuse to call him a Czar!) was getting the Gov't involved in pay cuts for the bailed out firms? Hmmm... It was reported yesterday by the Wall Street Journal that while he cut total compensation by half, he substantially increased one important element -- regular salaries, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. The move reflects the complexity of regulating something that mixes politics and economics. Yes, indeed it does!

So... I've gone on and on this morning about what we have to look forward to in our future (near?)... What about what's going on today? Well... As I said yesterday, Norway's Norges Bank will announce a rate hike this afternoon... They will be the first European Central Bank of raise rates, and the third overall Central Bank to raise them. We all know that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised rates first... But who was second? Ahhh... In a not so publicized move, the Bank of Israel raised rates second!

Norway is experiencing accelerating home prices and the Norges Bank has to step in before another housing bubble gets started. No, the Norwegian economy isn't going great guns, but the recovery is going on, and a rate hike here would probably nip the housing price acceleration in the bud... The question remains of will the Norges Bank be aggressive with the rate hike and go for 50 Basis points (1/2%) or just 25 Basis Points (1/4%)? If they have any intestinal fortitude they'll go for the 50! But the markets expect them to be gradual about their approach to raising rates... And so, 25 BPS will probably be the announcement this afternoon.

Gold has really gotten the snot knocked out of it recently... Gold is trading more than $30 per ounce less than it was 10 days ago! And this plays well with the comment above about risk assets being dragged down by stocks... You know my thoughts on price drops in Gold... Need I say more?

And then there was this... Just when you thought the yield on the 10-year Treasury was going to keep moving higher... An invisible hand sweeps down and knocks the yield back 10 Basis points! Well... In this case, it's probably more "safe haven buying" driving the price up and the yield down, than it is hanky panky from the Fed... You would think that anyone that played this "safe haven" game before and got burned badly would not go down that road again... But... Maybe they didn't even realize that they took losses on their "safe haven" purchase! HA!

To recap... The dollar is on the warpath, as a drop in Consumer Confidence in the U.S. has investors dumping risk assets again. C. Fred Bergsten, former Treasury official, recommends the White House to participate in forming a new alternative currency for international trade and dump the dollar, and we talk about Lord Monckton's speech about the climate change bill... Norway will raise rates today, and safe haven buying seems to be on the docket once more.

Currencies today 10/27/09: A$ .9035, kiwi .7335, C$ .9315, euro 1.4780, sterling 1.6325, Swiss .9785, rand 7.7610, krone 5.7190, SEK 7.0425, forint 184.75, zloty 2.8830, koruna 17.8380, RUB 29.29, yen 91, sing 1.4015, HKD 7.7507, INR 47.35, China 6.8281, pesos 13.26, BRL 1.75, dollar index 76.24, Oil $78.86, 10-year 3.43%, Silver $16.46, and Gold... $1,033.05

That's it for today... Well... Thanks for all the kind notes regarding my cancer update... The did find the problem in my left leg... I have a blood clot! UGH! I'm not taking this one as well as I did the one in my right leg after my surgeries! But, we'll get it dealt with, and move on... I know that some of you don't like these health updates, but many do... I forgot a trip when I was talking about my upcoming travel yesterday... At the end of January I'll be heading to San Antonio... Time to batten down the hatches once again... And the World Series starts tonight... Good thing Colorado didn't make it to the World Series, they would be "snowed out"! OK... Time is here today... Time! I hope your Wednesday is Wonderful!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

RBA's Stevens Turns On The Green Light!

Chuck Butler — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:21:59 GMT

..But First, A Word From Our Sponsor...
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In This Issue..

* The dollar bounces back a bit...
* Euro retreats from highs...
* Is the economic recovery for real?
* Ignored data...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

RBA's Stevens Turns On The Green Light!

Good day... And a Happy Friday to one and all! I believe it will be a Fantastico Friday as well, because when I go in my car this morning to come to work, the radio was playing, "It's a Beautiful Morning"... It had to be a sign, right? I certainly hope so any way!

Well, I'm back! I have to say that I've never been to the mountains of North Georgia before, and they are beautiful... Well, most of the parts of this great country are, when I come to think of it! Well, it was nice to walk in the door yesterday and sit down, close my eyes, and get work off my brain!

So... That lasted about 2 hours, and then it was back to the news wires to see what was going on with the currencies. So, now that we've got the housekeeping out of the way, we had better go Front and Center with the story o' the day... (Well, in my mind any way!)

So, Front and Center this morning, we've got the Aussie dollar (A$) rallying strongly, and a lot of that move is coming to us by way of an interview with Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Gov. Stevens...

Gov. Stevens when asked at a breakfast function in Perth whether the RBA had any tools to prevent speculators driving the A$ to US$ 1.10

Mr Stevens replied that, rather than speculators, there usually was a rational reason for big exchange rate movements... (Ok Mr Stevens I guess you are going to tell us what that rational reason is for the A$'s big move?)

"We've got one of the better-performing economies in the world. Even at very low interest rates, we still have a positive differential and we're a country where the people here are, I think, reasonably confident about the future and foreigners are fairly confident about our future, and it's not entirely surprising that they're a bit keen on the currency."

WOW! The RBA Gov. said that? That's amazing! Of course it's true, it's true, and I've told you that for months now, but to hear the RBA Gov. say it, now that's a horse of a different color, indeed!

OK... So... The RBA Gov. gave the green light to currency traders, investors, and whomever else to take the A$ to $1.10... Now, will it ever get there? Well, that's a different thing altogether! I remember last year, before the HUGE deleveraging that went on, and then the collapse of Lehman Brothers, that the A$ was marching toward parity to the U.S. dollar, and when the you know what hit the fan, the risk assets got the snot knocked out of them, including the A$... I had said that I thought the A$ could make it to parity, and when it got stopped at the border, and had only reached 98-cents, you should have seen the emails, accusing me of mis-leading people... Come on! 98-cents is so close to parity, it can taste it!

So, it is with a weariness in even reporting this story, that I will make this point... I DIDN'T SAY THE A$ WOULD GO TO $1.10!!!!! I JUST TOLD YOU WHAT THE RBA GOV. SAID WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE A$ GOING TO $1.10!

Well... The Big Dog, euro was really taking a shot at the dollar overnight, but has backed off in a bout of profit taking, I'm sure... The single unit went as high as 1.4970 overnight, but has backed off to 1.49 as I write... I got a kick out of a quote that I saw the other day by European Central Bank (ECB) President, Trichet, that..."The euro was not created as a reserve currency"... Oh! Come on Jean Claude! You know darn good and well that the euro was created to compete with the dollar! You guys in Euroland, were determined that a single unit covering several countries, could work... It was a precursor, if you will, to what we're hearing about more and more these days... A global currency... So... Call it what you want Jean Claude... I know, and now all of my readers know that the euro was created to be a reserve currency in waiting...

OK, maybe that wasn't really clear... I know, I hear you saying, yeah, Chuck, clear as mud! But, the point is simply that Trichet once again was trying to defend the dollar in a kind of back-handed way... By downplaying the euro's ability to be a reserve currency... The other stuff is just Chuck talking about his greatest fears... And we don't need to have him go any further there!

OK... I'm back, I was away for a minute, and I came back to consciousness and saw that two paragraphs had been typed... I had better go back to see what my alter-ego wrote, but, nah... We'll throw it out there anyway!

The news wires are filled with stories today about how the dollar is going to bounce here, because the selling has been too hot and heavy in recent days, and that the economic recovery is too strong to warrant a currency sell off like we've seen... Well, that's all good, as long as one truly believes that the economic recovery here in the U.S. is on the up and up...

Do you believe it to be? I don't! I wish I could... But I don't! Not when the unemployment is so bad, and the little pulse that we see in the economy is from the Gov't's efforts to pump life into the economy... But this unemployment thing is absolutely awful folks...

Alrighty then, let's go on to something else... The Canadian dollar / loonie has really been on a roll VS the green/peachback dollar... Canada will print their latest CPI (consumer inflation) this morning, and I think it will tell us a lot about loonie's ability to continue to move toward parity once again... The Bank of Canada (BOC) meets next week, and long time readers will recall that I've been pretty hard on the beaver (BOC) in recent months, as they kept saying that they would leave rates at current levels until the 2nd half of 2010... And they well should have been taken to the woodshed for those comments... Well, if Canadian CPI shows some inflation pressures, it will be down to the BOC's meeting next week, to see if they change their previous stance... I think they will, and thus the loonie will continue to move higher VS the dollar... But that's just my opinion, folks, I don't have a crystal ball, and I could very well be wrong! (That's for the legal beagles!)

Today's data cupboard here in the U.S. will be interesting in that the TIC's data will print, but for the most part, this VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF DATA has been largely ignored by the markets... Why is that? Well, I don't really know, but if I were to put my conspiracy hat on, I would say something like that the markets have been directed by the Gov't NOT to make a big deal out of, to downplay the Gov't's inability to finance the deficit, for if that were to be the case, it would be curtains for the dollar!

We'll also see two of my faves... Industrial Production, and Capacity Utilization... For all the new readers to the Pfennig, I particularly like Capacity Utilization, and always have for that matter, because it's about the only "forward looking" piece of data (along with Leading Indicators)... So... Capacity Utilization is running around 69%... What does that tell us? It tells us the economy sucks! And don't believe those that keep telling you the coast is all clear!

And then since no one pays attention to those three pieces of data, the U of Michigan Consumer Confidence will print and THAT WILL catch everyone's attention! UGH! Even with a soaring stock market, I would have to think that Consumer Confidence would be taking a hit of sorts... It would be difficult at best to do a survey these days about Confidence and not run into quite a few negative thoughts from all the unemployed Americans!

And then there was this from the Wall Street Journal... "High unemployment in the U.S. has led to rising charge-offs and delinquencies at credit card companies. The firms are reacting by limiting credit, raising the bar on lending standards and cutting back on loan portfolios."

So... Again, this is just another reason why I don't believe the economic recovery campers!

And to add to that thought... Have you noticed the huge jump in the oil price? And have you been charting the rise in Treasury yields? Well... Either of these look good for the U.S. consumer... Oil has jumped to $77 a barrel, and the 10-year Treasury yield has really pushed higher to 3.47%! ( I guess it's time for the Fed to buy some more auctioned Treasuries to bring the yield back down, eh?) But... These two things are very good, when not manipulated by the Gov't at telling us about the future...

OK, to recap... The A$ is pushing higher toward parity with the dollar once again, and when asked about what the RBA can do to stop the A$ from going to $1.10, RBA Gov Stevens basically gave the all clear to traders to take it there! The euro had moved to 1.4970 overnight, but is seeing some profit taking this morning, and the data cupboard has some important data this morning, but for the most part the markets will ignore it...

Currencies today 10/16/09: A$ .9220, kiwi .7440, C$ .9685, euro 1.4915, sterling 1.63, Swiss .9830, rand 7.3420, krone 5.5915, SEK 6.95, forint 179.40, zloty 2.8220, koruna 17.2550, RUB 29.63, yen 91.10, sing 1.3940, HKD 7.75, INR 46.24, China 6.8267, pesos 13.05, BRL 1.70, dollar index 75.56, Oil $77.35, 10-year 3.47%, Silver $17.39, and Gold... $1,049.88

That's it for today... Well, I'm sure this come as a shock to the boys and girls here, but today is Boss's Day! I hear that it's been quite wild here since I left, that's a good thing! Hey! Our Ty Keough was named to the St. Louis University Billiken 50th year soccer team! Congrats Ty! The picture of you in college that the University posted is AWESOME! And then, I wanted to give my own congrats to our little Christine, for her performance in the Chicago marathon last weekend... Good show! Little Delaney Grace came over to try on her Dorothy dress for Halloween, and my beautiful bride made... She performed for us on the fireplace hearth, singing somewhere over the rainbow! What a CUTIE! And she's only 2! My little buddy, Alex, has two football games this weekend... So, I'll be doing a lot of sitting on bleachers this weekend! OK, I had better stop there, and get this out the door! I hope your Friday is Fantastico!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Oops, Did I Say That Out Loud?

Chuck Butler — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:36:53 GMT

..But First, A Word From Our Sponsor...
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In This Issue..

* A Wild and Wacky Wednesday...
* FOMC leave stimulus and QE in place...
* Will G-20 try to throw cold water on commodities?
* GATA receives a letter from the Fed...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Oops, Did I Say That Out Loud?

Good day... And a Thunderin' Thursday to you! It's Thundering and raining here, so I felt that naming today a "Thunderin' Thursday" was bang on! We had a wild and wacky Wednesday yesterday, with the Fed Heads playing the part of the court jester... And... I want to know, right here, right now, why the media isn't blasting Fed Head Honcho Big Ben Bernanke! I'll tell you why they should be, in a minute...

OK... As I said, we had a wild and wacky Wednesday yesterday, as the non-dollar currencies went for a spin on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, with Big Ben Bernanke in the role of Mr. Toad! HA! That makes me chuckle! Here's the skinny, and what everyone should be up in arms about...

The FOMC meeting concluded with interest rates remaining at near zero... But what happened next was, well, exactly as I said it would happen, but we'll get back to that in a minute... What I'm talking about here is that the Big Ben's band of merry men announced that the U.S. economy's return to growth was insufficient to withdraw stimulus, and that quantitative easing would remain until March next year... WHAT!

HEY BIG BEN! I read in the Financial Times the other day, yes, the Financial Times, that you said the recession was likely over! I also read in another publication that you said basically the same thing... So! If what you told these fine publications is true... Why then do we need stimulus in place along with Quantitative Easing until next March? You could almost hear Big Ben saying... "Oops, did I say that out loud?" HA!

Doesn't that just tick you off? Big Ben and the President going around telling people that it's all clear and consumers can come out now and resume their spending, only to find out it was nothing but "feel good" stuff... Yes, stuff to make us "feel good"... So we would take our eye off the ball... But not me! You can't fool a wiley old veteran like me, right Jack Milner? I'm not falling for that change-up... And it ticks me off that they thought I was so stupid to fall for that!

Ok... Let's take a trip back to Monday of this week, when I was trying to explain why the dollar had reversed the negativity toward it... I said this in the Pfennig on Monday... "Seriously though, the markets are of the belief that the Fed will keep rates near zero, but will announce that they will begin to remove stimulus, as Head Fed Honcho, Big Ben Bernanke, believes the recession is over...

I think this is wishful thinking on the markets' part, as I really don't see the Fed Heads doing anything, but talking about doing this, that and the other thing. You see, the Fed Heads know all too well that the Commercial Real Estate problems are just beginning and with Unemployment."

I've been more right about what the Fed Heads were going to do, for the last 2 years, than Big Ben!

OK... So, here's where the wild and wacky comes in... The non-dollar currencies were hanging around on a corner trading in a tight range, when the announcement of further stimulus and Quantitative Easing was made... You should have seen the non-dollar currencies begin to run up VS the dollar... It was crazy, I mean in a manner of minutes the euro traded from 1.4765, to 1.4850, and Gold? It was soaring too! But then it was one of those a-ha minutes, and no, I'm not talking about the 80's group singing Take Me On! No, it was one of those head slapping moments when you say... Wow, I could have had a V-8!

Basically, investors figured out that by leaving the stimulus in place longer than originally planned, the Cartel, I mean the Fed, is confirming that the U.S. economic recovery isn't nearly as robust as Big Ben and his compatriots have led everyone to believe. Stock markets fell, and the Treasury rates rose.

With the stocks backing off, the risk assets of currencies and precious metals backed off VS the dollar... And, we ended the day, where we started it... A wild and wacky Wednesday for sure!

The overnight markets were very confused as to what direction they should take... So, as I turn on the screens this morning, the euro is 1.4775, and Gold is $1,014... About the same as yesterday morning... If you weren't around for the spin on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, then you would think... "How boring these currencies and metals are"... HA!

The thing that keeps haunting me here with yesterday's stock sell off... Could it be the next leg down that I keep warning you about? Could yesterday's sell off be the harbinger of more selling? We'll have to keep an eye on this, folks... If we see 3 or 4 days of consecutive selling, it could very well be the indication that the next leg down is here...

Well... The other day I mentioned that the dollar could very well be the last man standing when it comes to near zero interest rates, and that could lead to the dollar becoming the next funding currency for the Carry Trade...

Ty brought to my attention this fact that plays quite well with that thought... For the 1st time since 1933, 3 month LIBOR rates in the U.S. (.28563) are lower than Japanese Yen 3 month LIBOR rates (.34875)

And one wonders why, the dollar is getting beaten like a rented mule? (no animals were hurt!)

A reader called in yesterday and wanted to know what I thought regarding... how a new SDR would affect the currencies. (Specifically NOK, AUS, BRL, CHF)

Well... That's a tough one! Because if we do end up with a new SDR, no one knows what the makeup of that SDR will be... So, I can't say how it would affect any currency until we begin down that road to a new SDR... If the current makeup of an SDR is used, then euro, yen, sterling and dollars would benefit... But one has to think that if things come to pass and we start down that road of a new SDR (Special Drawing Rights) that the makeup would be quite different, and could possibly even have some Gold as a component!

So... Sorry, I can't really answer the question, because it's an unknown... I hope my beautiful bride reads this part, as she usually only reads the first and last paragraphs, because she always contends that if I don't know the answer to a question that I just make something up... See, dear? I said I couldn't answer the question!

Ok... G-20 begins today... Look for these knuckleheads to take a toughened stance on speculation, with Oil in mind... I think that all they will do is make things tough for the Commodity Currencies of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and Norway... There's also an outside chance that these knuckleheads will attempt to do something to limit the rise in currencies VS the dollar... In other words, prop up the dollar... I'm not convinced they could do that, and I am convinced they shouldn't do that!

Speaking of Norway... The Norges Bank (Norway's Central Bank) did as I thought they would with rates, and what I hoped they would do with their statement... Here's the skinny... The Norges Bank left rates unchanged... But... Said after the rate announcement that "they were CONSIDERING a rate hike"... The Norwegian krone went on a moon shot immediately after that statement.

In the race between Norway and Australia as to which will be the first to hike rates, Norway takes the lead, with that announcement yesterday... But, it really doesn't matter, as no one will get the checkered flag or anything... The thing that makes the difference is that the yield differentials to the U.S. will begin to grow wider... And that, my friends, will go a long way toward currency strength for the currency that rewards investors with higher yields!

Speaking of Australia... The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) semi-annual Financial Stability Review gave a generally clean bill of health to the banking system and noted sentiment among households and business had improved considerably in recent months... But... The RBA went on to caution that it was not strong enough yet... Which then puts the Aussie rate hike forecast further behind Norway's...

In New Zealand overnight... It's been a good week o' data for the Kiwis... Last night, it was the latest Consumer Confidence Index which jumped to a 4 - year high of 120.3 (previous reading was 106)! WOW! So... The highest Consumer Confidence in 4 years! This news helped kiwi to remain above 72-cents... Even with the risk assets sell off...

In Germany this morning... The Business Climate Index, as reported by the think tank IFO, disappointed a bit, as it came in (91.3) lower than forecast (92), but... The 91.3 marked the 6th consecutive monthly increase for the data... So, the trend is still in place...

And it's good to be the yen, eh? I mean, recently, we've seen yen rally when the other currencies rally VS the dollar... And before that, we've seen yen rally along with the dollar... Last night, yen rallied alongside the dollar, and is trading with a 90 handle this morning...

And then there was this... The Federal Reserve System has disclosed to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. (GATA) that it has gold swap arrangements with foreign banks that it does not want the public to know about. WOW! This is a BIG DEAL folks, as the Fed as recently as 2001 (Big Al Greenspan) denied that these swap arrangements existed...

GATA believes that this letter suggests that the Fed is indeed very much involved in the surreptitious international central bank manipulation of the gold price particularly and the currency markets generally.

So guess what I think regarding the Fed now? That Ron Paul's bill to audit the Fed needs to get on a roll! Remember, it comes before a committee tomorrow, I believe, where it will be decided to forward the bill on or kill it... So, call your representative and tell them you believe they should back Ron Paul's bill to audit the Fed! I've got a bag full of names to call these guys at the cartel, I mean Fed... But, those are verbally used only... Nothing in writing... Hey! This is a family safe letter!

OK... So, to recap... The Fed is leaving stimulus in place along with Quantitative Easing until next March. So much for Big Ben, and the President's claim that the recession is over, eh? The currencies rallied at first on the Fed's announcement, but later realized the rot on the economy's vine has been exposed by the Fed, and then the currencies sold off VS the dollar to end the day unchanged...

Currencies today 9/24/09: .8745, kiwi .7235, C$ .93, euro 1.4775, sterling 1.6220, Swiss .9770, rand 7.3850, krone 5.7630, SEK 6.8380, forint 183.15, zloty 2.82, koruna 17.04, RUB 29.99, yen 90.60, sing 1.4110, HKD 7.75, INR 48.03, China 6.8273, pesos 13.37, BRL 1.7980, dollar index 76.25, Oil $68.36, 10-year 3.41%, Silver $16.81, and Gold... $1,014.10

That's it for today... Cardinals missed a chance to clinch last night, but the magic number falls to 1... Today, our colleague, Don Ries, celebrates his birthday... Don and I have worked together, off and on since 1989... He's our "Bond Daddy"! Or, I guess I should say "Bond Granddaddy"! We had a MarketSafe CD mature this week. It was a 3 year CD in the AIG / Dow Jones Commodity Index, and it returned a little less than 2%... Which isn't anything to write home about, but, as I tell people these days, "it's better to have a return of capital than a return on capital! We're going to extend the BRIC MarketSafe to another funding date in November, but that will be the last funding for that CD. The BRIC has been quite popular, I must say... I have 3 hours of Continuing Education on the docket this morning... This is my 3 broker licenses... Oh boy! Talk about brain death! OK... I've got to get this out the door... I hope everyone arrives to work dry, as it's a Thunderin' Thursday!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Protectionism Wars, Here We Come!

Chuck Butler — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:30:32 GMT

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In This Issue..

* Currencies back off gains...
* Administration slaps tariff on China...
* And Yen rallies...
* Quotes from Davos...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Protectionism Wars, Here We Come!

Good day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! I hope your weekend was grand... I was supposed to be traveling back from Williamsburg today, so this is a bonus day for you all! HA! On Friday morning, I told the early arrivers that the currencies were strong, Gold was strong, it was all good, and we needed to close up shop and go home, because it wasn't going to get an better than that, and that the rest of the day had nothing but disappointment risk! Boy did I nail that one on the head! Let's get to the goings on.

The currencies added to their gains during the Friday morning, only to see them give the gains back later in the day, as the "boys" in NY all closed shop and headed to the Hamptons. I checked the markets last night before going to bed, and they were trading very close to Friday's close as they are still this morning.

The one currency to buck the trend, and remain hot as a fire-cracker, is the Japanese yen... Not that it had any fundamental reason to do so, but that didn't matter, as yen bulls looked around and found something to hang their hats on.

The news that pushed yen higher came from the U.S. where the Administration announced a tariff on Chinese tires... Passenger and light truck tires to be exact... This really heats up the trade protectionism between the U.S. and China, folks... And... If China and the U.S. are going to be battling it out on the Trade Protectionism front, the Japanese yen would look to be the "better bet" in Asia...

If you all recall, a couple of months ago I told you that protectionism was going to become the "thing to do"... At that time, I really thought that countries would use their currencies as bargaining tools, in trade... But leave it to the U.S. to pull a rabbit out of the protectionism hat...

You know... Back in 2001, the then President Bush, slapped a tariff on Chinese steel... And I remember telling everyone that would listen to me that this would be the Big Shift in the strong dollar trend that existed then... I was credited with calling the secular shift of the dollar to a weak dollar trend. Now, we have this tariff... What do you think this will do to U.S. / China relations? YIKES!

You know... If the U.S. Trade Commission was really concerned about the shipments of tires to the U.S. and what they felt to be a displacing of thousands of jobs, why then didn't the Trade Commission work with the U.S. tire companies and work out a price adjustment? Ahhh, grasshopper, that would be too difficult to do! It's far easier to slap tariffs on the one country that has bought your debt year after year, without batting an eye...

OK... So, could this new tariff be the juice that moves the dollar to the next big leg down? It very well could, but it won't happen overnight, folks... These things need to work themselves through... Just like in 2001, it took several months before the dollar really began a strong downward trend... But, keep this in the memory bank...

Oh... And China, feeling that they had to retaliate... Announced a probe of U.S. auto, and chicken imports... See how this works folks? If you get this going really heated, it could spread throughout the globe, and push all the hard work to get out of the global recession into the dumpster! This is plain stupid! And our Gov't should have known better!

Well... We had our first bank casualty from the Commercial Real Estate meltdown... Corus Bank in Chicago, is the second largest bank to fail this year, and will cost the government between $1.5 Billion and $2.4 Billion in losses, depending on the performance of the bank's outstanding loans.

Speaking of Gov't losses... I saw some math on the Cars for Clunkers program... Don't believe what the Gov't tells you that it was a success... Unless of course they are talking about successfully spending Billions!

OK... Lets get off this Gov't stuff, they give me a big rash anyway!

At this time every year, economists meet in Davos, Switzerland, and normally you can get a few thoughts that remind everyone about "what's really going on in the world"... And this year was no exception... The Big Boss, Frank Trotter, was kind enough to send a few of those thoughts to me this weekend...

First off, one of my fave economists, Stephen Roach, had this to say... "The American consumer is dead and this is a wake up call for the Chinese & Asian export industry."

Then we had a guy from China that's a "think tank" guy... His name is Yu Yongding, and he had this to say... "I have tremendous doubts about US households to finance the budget deficit." and... "Why are people still so confident in the strength of the dollar? It's a myth!"

And then there was this... Remember the talks I've had with you regarding the IMF wanting to issue their own "global currency"? Well... Zhu Min Bank of China had this to say... "IMF should provide stable reserve currency regardless of format. Very volatile reserve currency is difficult for Asia."

The Wall Street Journal had a good story regarding the weak dollar this weekend... Let's check it out... WSJ... "The dollar could continue its weeklong decline this week, especially if data on U.S. retail sales show improvement. The dollar hit a nine-month low last week against the euro and a seven-month low against the yen. Investors are moving into higher-yielding currencies such as the yen as the global economic picture brightens."

Sounds as if the WSJ writer is a Pfennig reader, eh?

Since the WSJ brought up Retail Sales, we might as well go to the data cupboard to see what's up this week... The cupboard is empty today... But tomorrow it will yield the stupid PPI report, along with Retail Sales for August, which are expected to be stronger, based on the Cars for Clunkers program which ended in August. We would have normally seen the August Retail Sales report to be stronger anyway, given the "back to school" purchases... The Butler Household Index (BHI) tells me that besides Cars for Clunkers we would see a jump...

On Friday last week, we saw the U. of Michigan Consumer Confidence report jump 5 figures to 70.2, and the Monthly Budget Deficit print at $111.4 Billion, not as bad as forecast, but still, not good in any stretch of the imagination, folks!

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), issued a report yesterday that said the BIS expects longer-term bond yields to increase on the Swelling Budget Concern...

OK... Let me explain what they are talking about... As the Budget Deficit grows, we have to issue more bonds (our debt) to finance the deficit... The BIS believe, like I have said for some time now that eventually, the buyers of these bonds are going to require the yields to be more attractive... And as yields grow higher, the losses in these bonds grow wider for the holders...

Commodities have sold off since Friday morning, and that hurts the Commodity currencies... Oil, which was up to $72, is back to $68 this morning, as it was reported that "demand was slowing"... Hmmm, not when it comes to filling my gas tank! HA! Especially when I had to turn around and drive 45 minutes home to get Alex's cleats for his football game Saturday, and get back in time for the game! Sorry, my fat fingers just started typing that and I couldn't stop them!

That's about all I can talk about today regarding the currencies and economies... I do have to say before I head to the recap and Big Finish, that thanks to Chris Gaffney, I can now see the TV! We used to have this old TV in the office, and the picture on it had gotten so bad I couldn't see much... But Chris brought in an extra TV from home, and WOW! It's amazing! And the best part is now I can see Robin Meade better! HA!

OK, to recap... The Currencies gave back some ground Friday afternoon, but remain at those levels this morning. Japanese yen is stronger on the news of a protectionism war between the U.S. and China, as the U.S. administration slapped a tariff of Chinese tires. The annual meeting in Davos is going on, and Retail Sales tomorrow is important data for this week.

Currencies today 9/14/09: A$.8580, kiwi .6995, C$ .9185, euro 1.4550, sterling 1.6545, Swiss .9615, rand 7.5120, krone 5.97, SEK 7.0550, forint 188.50, zloty 2.90, koruna 17.5375, RUB 30.85, yen 90.60, sing 1.4250, HKD 7.75, INR 48.75, China 6.8290, pesos 13.46, BRL 1.83, dollar index 76.95, Oil $68.53, 10-year 3.35%, Silver $16.42, and Gold... $997

That's it for today... A tough weekend for my beloved Cardinals... The umpires robbed them on Friday night, they game up a game on Saturday, and failed to show up for yesterday's game, leading to a sweep by the Braves! YIKES! Is it time to start worrying? My little buddy Alex and his football team had a strong victory on Saturday, and my beloved Missouri Tigers showed up for the 4th QTR to win... Saturday night, was our little river town's Musical Sunset in the park, with fireworks... Neighbor friends all around... Little Delaney Grace wasn't impressed with the fireworks, as she nearly fell asleep during them! A full week ahead, so I had better get to working on getting ahead! Thanks for your time today, till next time... I hope you have a Marvelous Monday!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Patriot Day...

Chuck Butler — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:28:01 GMT

...But First, A Word From Our Sponsor...
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In This Issue..

* Currencies have strong rally!
* Trade Deficit jumps 16.3% in July!
* HR 1207 Gets a hearing!
* Gold gets back to $1,000!

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Patriot Day...

Good day... And a Happy Friday to one and all! Today is Patriot Day in the U.S. and a day that brings back memories of cowardly attacks on our country 8 years ago. I remember the shock and horror on everyone's faces, and that image will remain with me to the grave. I also remember trying to write the Pfennig the "day after"... It just didn't seem that important of a thing to do, but a reader told me that to keep things as "normal" as possible was the best thing I could do... So... I wrote...

OK... The currencies, and this time I mean the majority of them not just euro and yen, added to their gains this week VS the dollar yesterday... The Big Dog, euro, is once again knocking at the door to 1.46... Who's that knocking at the door, Who's that ringing the bell? Do me a favor, open the door, and let 'em in...

The dollar index has really tumbled this week... Recall when I told you how the dollar index was put together, that euros were really overweighed in the index, which means that even yesterday morning, when the dollar had rebounded a bit against the commodity currencies, the dollar index still lost ground, due to the euro strength... So, once again, I tell people that the dollar index isn't a currency... To get real currency exposure, you must own the currency... And yes, you can buy all the ETF's at Gary's Stocks and Bonds you want, you can't get the currency out of an ETF... So, if things come to push and shove, you may just want to have the ability to own the currency, eh?

Ok, I really went off on a tangent there... What I was working toward with the comment about the dollar index tumbling is that today marks the 6th consecutive day of the index falling in value, the longest such streak for the dollar index since March, when the dollar began going into the tank once again. And a lot of traders and such use the dollar index as an indicator... Well, fellas... That indicator is telling you something!

But I didn't need the dollar index to tell me the negativity toward the dollar had begun growing again, and that risk assets are the king of the hill right now... And what is being used as the "funding currency" to purchase these risk assets? That's right... The dollar!

The Japanese yen has joined its currency brothers and taken up the fight against the dollar... For the longest time, dollars and yen traded in tandem... But this week, things have changed, and yen is gaining VS the dollar... In fact, yen just went below 91! A stock company in Tokyo issued a report last night that said, "if the yen falls below 90 it may spark a downward spiral"... Hmmm...

The thing I pointed out to the boys and girls on the trading desk was that it was almost like "the old days"... The U.S. printed some bad data, and the dollar got sold! Now, that's the way it used to be! The data I'm talking about is the Trade Deficit for July, which registered its biggest increase in more than 10 years in July, as surging purchases of oil caused an unprecedented jump in imports. The deficit widened by 16.3%, its largest percentage increase since February 1999, to $31.96 Billion. That's up from the $27.49 Billion Deficit figure in June.

The trading pattern for a long time now was to buy dollars when bad data printed, (safe haven, they thought!) and the currencies would suffer... But, yesterday that changed, at least for that piece of data it did. Like I always say... One swallow doesn't make a summer... In this case, one "fundamentals trading day" doesn't make for a new trend... But it could be a start, and one that I would welcome with open arms!

We'll see how that holds up today... On this Friday, the 11th of September, Patriot Day, we'll see the Monthly Budget Statement, which should be quite a doozy, and the U. of Michigan Consumer Confidence... Probably split down the middle as far as negativity toward the dollar, unless that is, the Consumer Confidence surprises on the downside... But with the stock market kicking rear and taking names later, I would be shocked if Consumer Confidence was weak!

The Monthly Budget Statement, read Deficit! Is forecast to print a whopping addition to our already eye-popping Budget Deficit, of $140 Billion! Recall that we all thought last month's deficit of $111 Billion was bad... Well, we'll see your $111 Billion, and raise you $29 Billion!

That's just shameful folks... We, as a country, continue to spend what we don't have, and print money, and do all the stupid things that got us to this place to begin with! Pursuing the same stupid policy of excessive spending, debt expansion and monetary inflation can only compound the problems that prevent the required corrections. Doubling the money supply didn't work, and neither will any amount of money supply!

I read this somewhere, forgive me but I don't recall where, and it stuck in my head... "Buying up the bad debt of privileged institutions and dumping worthless assets on the American people is morally wrong and economically futile."

The Chinese see what we're doing folks... And they don't like it one iota! Why does that matter, you may ask? Ahhh grasshopper... Come, sit... Did you ever borrow money from your parents, grandparents? (I didn't, but I know how it works) Well, in the presence of the people you borrowed money from, you are thrifty, and show that you are doing what it takes to pay them back... Hmmm... Think of China as the parents that have lent money to the child, the U.S. They see us as doing harm to their money...

I know, that I've talked about this so many times before that you're tired of hearing about it... But, China is the gate keeper folks... We were stupid enough to get to this place, with all our deficit spending, and now... As my mother used to say... You made your bed, now lay in it!

Well! Someone opened the door and let the euro in! The single unit just traded above 1.46! You, are my shining star! Well, wait a minute here, Chuck... There are a lot of shining stars in the sky for us to see, especially when you get out into the country away from the city lights! In the case of currencies being shining stars... Aussie, kiwi, real, loonies, Swissie, krone, are all up there in the sky to shine for us all!

I know that a lot of people do not believe in the Chinese economic growth story... That's OK... But without it, we wouldn't be having this rally in risk assets... So... I tend to go along with it, until somebody can prove to me that the Chinese data is bad... For instance, last night, China reported that their Industrial Production rose 12.3% in August VS a year ago. I told you long ago that China would be the first country to come out of the global recession... And they have proved that to be bang on!

I received a note yesterday that put a smile on my face... The note was from the "Audit The Fed Coalition"... I've made such a stink about the need to audit the Fed, and to support Ron Paul's HR 1207, Bill that calls for such an audit, that these people have made me an honorary member of their coalition! Any way... The note said that House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has officially agreed to hold hearings on HR 1207! The hearings are tentatively scheduled for Friday, September 25 at 9:00 am.

This doesn't mean we're home free here... It just means the Bill will take the next step toward giving the American people the ability to see the man behind the curtain, and where the money is going, etc. in other words, the Fed would have to defend itself to the American people...

And this has nothing to do with currencies and economies, but I have to get this off my chest... I read where U.S. Treasury Sec. Geithner, has proposed that bankers get paid in equity, something that can be "clawed back" if the bank doesn't perform. This reminds me a Gov. we had here in Missouri years ago, he said he wouldn't raise taxes without a vote of the people... But after being elected he raised the taxes without a vote by the people... But he also then put in place a law that prevented any other Gov. from ever doing that in the future... This is the same thing with Geithner... He would have stomped and whined for days years ago if they told him his pay would be in equity rather than cash...

OK... I'm back now... Hey! Gold is back above $1,000! Yesterday, it was $984, when I went through the currency round-up... And I had told you all that my new thing was to look to buy on the dips below $1,000... BTW... I wrote my Gold piece I told you about the other day, the Publisher rejected it! YIKES! Back to the drawing board!

OH! I almost forgot! The Bank of England (BOE), and the Bank of Canada (BOC) both kept rates unchanged as expected... The BOC, which I took to the woodshed yesterday morning, maintained their "conditional" commitment to keep rates at .25% until near the end of 2010... Again, I just don't see how they can make that statement... The data in Canada lately has shown signs of a nascent recovery... I would think the BOC would have to move earlier should this recovery get legs...

And... Finally, I've complained for years about this guy and his jawboning and dissing his own currency, and he's at it again... Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) Gov. Bollard, said, "the currency's gains are undesirable and unhelpful for an export-led recovery"... Now, that's true in one sense... But, not completely true! Look at the euro! It's strong, and Germany's exports are rivaling China's! I feel bad for kiwi... It's just not right for a Central Banker to talk about wanting his country's currency to be weaker! Where have you gone, Don Brash?

Don Brash, was the Gov. of the RBNZ years ago and understood the "perception" that a strong currency gives to a country! I met Don Brash years ago, and in fact have a picture of him with me! Oh well... A little history never hurts!

So... Let's recap... We have a strong currency rally going on, after the U.S. printed an awful one month increase in the Trade Deficit. The euro has scratched and clawed its way back to 1.46 this morning, and we're holding our breath for the Monthly Budget Statement today...And Gold is back to $1,000!

Currencies today 9/11/09: A$.8650, kiwi .7085, C$ .9295, euro 1.4615, sterling 1.67, Swiss .9655, rand 7.57, krone 5.91, SEK 6.98, forint 186.66, zloty 2.86, koruna 17.44, RUB 30.73, yen 90.80, sing 1.4210, HKD 7.75, INR 48.46, China 6.8290, pesos 13.41, BRL 1.81, dollar index 76.59, Oil $72, 10-year 3.35%, Silver $16.88, and Gold... $1,002

That's it for today... American Flag on the house today for Patriot Day... And tomorrow, it gets changed to my BIG M Flag... M for Mizzou! Or for those of you out of the state... The University of Missouri! Tomorrow is my little buddy Alex's first football game of the year... He's in 8th grade now, and the size difference of these boys at this age is amazing! Alex is on the small side, but so was I when I was his age! I don't worry about him out there, because he has a bulldog attitude, with a motor that doesn't stop on the Football field... I wonder where he got that? HA! Speaking of which, I watched some of that football game last night, the first NFL game of the year, and Troy Polamalu was something! OK.. Gotta go.. Just one last cheer for Old Mizzou, and those Lindbergh Flyers 8th grade team! Now... Let's get working on making this a Fantastico Friday!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

European orders support the Euro...

Chuck Butler — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:06:22 GMT

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In This Issue..

* European orders increase more than expected...
* Was Cash for Clunkers necessary?...
* Roubini sees a 'W' not a 'V'...
* Lessons from Mary Poppins...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

European orders support the Euro...

Good day... And welcome to another week, the last one in August! The weather here in St. Louis has shifted toward fall, which is my favorite season. Chuck is flying back home from San Francisco today and will be back in the saddle tomorrow. Both he and the big boss, Frank Trotter, sent me some great Pfennig pfodder over the weekend so lets get right to it.

The dollar continued to drift lower throughout the trading day on Friday, with the commodity currencies of Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand leading the way. Confidence is returning to the markets, and investors are once again moving out of the 'safe havens' of the Japanese yen and US dollar. The reports coming out of Jackson Hole indicate that central bankers believe chances for near-term growth appear good and recent data seem to support this conclusion.

European industrial orders increased more than economists forecast in June rising 3.1% from May. This was the largest gain in over a year and a half, and is the latest sign that the European economy is starting to climb back out of recession. But many economists question the strength of the recovery, saying the pick up in economic growth was mainly due to government programs. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet sounded cautious after the report. "We see some signs confirming that the real economy is starting to get out of the period of freefall," Trichet said in Jackson Hole. But this "does not mean at all that we do not have a very bumpy road ahead of us."

The home sales data released in the US on Friday were surprisingly strong, with existing home sales increasing 7.2% month on month. We get a bit of a break in the data releases today with just the Chicago Fed index; but the rest of the week will give us plenty of data to digest. Tomorrow we see the S&P/CaseShiller housing data, US consumer confidence, and ABC consumer confidence numbers. Wednesday will bring Durable Goods orders along with New Home sales. Thursday will give us another look at the estimate for 2nd Quarter GDP here in the US along with the weekly jobless claims. And we will close out the week on Friday with the release of Personal income and spending for July.

Should be a busy week ahead, and I would expect for most of the data out of the US to continue to confirm a government led recovery is underway here in the US. In particular, the consumer spending and durable goods orders should show a nice uptick on the back of the cash for clunker program. But Chuck sent me a note over the weekend which questions the 'success' of this program. Is it really what the US economy needed? Here are Chuck's thoughts from San Francisco:

"I was sitting here thinking about something that had flashed across the TV screen here in my room, and that is the "Cash for Clunkers" program... I blasted this program two weeks ago, and now that it's finally done with and $3 Billion was spent to artificially boost auto sales, I will put my final thought on this... Of course I already talked about the obvious things wrong with this program. But here's my final thought, and that is... I believe the program is going to end up hurting the most vulnerable consumers in the U.S. Middle Class buyers, traded in their "paid for" cars, and leveraged up to buy a new car, when they probably shouldn't have done so, given the rot on the economy's vine.

So... Once again, I'm reminded of the words that President Reagan said were the scariest words that could be spoken... "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"...

The reason I'm all over this program today like a cheap suit, is that this weekend, I heard that Big Ben Bernanke made a claim at the Jackson Hole boondoggle, that "we saved the world"... Oh, Come on Big Ben, isn't that just a bit dramatic? Does this statement have anything to do with the fact that you are up for re-appointment in January, and you would love to have that thought of you "saving the world" on the minds of the administration?

So... In the end, we'll see if "he saved the world"..."

I'm with Chuck on this one. It seems the US government is intent on getting consumers to go back to their borrow and spend habits. This is what created the bubbles, and the administration seems intent on creating another bubble economy. US consumers have made some historic cut backs on the amount of debt they are amassing (whether or not these cutbacks are by choice). The US government should not be encouraging these consumers to go back to their previous ways, but should instead be trying to use the funds to educate and train consumers and to encourage new and innovative companies. Use this downturn to correct some of the bad habits which we had gotten into. Yes, it will be painful, but breaking an addiction is always hard and painful. US consumers need to break our addiction to easy credit and massive debt. This recession/depression has given consumers a much needed wake up call, hopefully the administration won't be able to push consumers back into their old habits.

I went running with my wife and her friends over the weekend (trying to take it easy on the back) and got into a discussion about the US economy. One of my wife's friends had heard an interview on MSNBC in which an economist stated we were in a classic V shaped recovery. I let her know that I think the economist was one letter off, and that instead we will see the recovery shaped more like a W. The green shoots and recovery we are seeing right now will die out as government stimulus slows. High unemployment, a long slow housing recovery, commercial real estate woes, and rising personal bankruptcies will force the economy into another dramatic downturn. Central banks who have 'juiced' their economies with unlimited credit will have to decide whether to continue juicing, or pull back from the table.

Nouriel Roubini wrote a commentary in today's Financial Times which agrees with my thoughts. Roubini said the chance of a double dip recession is increasing because of risks related to ending global monetary and fiscal stimulus. He believes the global economy still has further to fall, and will bottom out sometime during the second half of 2009. While some economies such as China, Germany, Australia, and France will likely recover; others such as the US and UK will double dip with another leg down. "There are risks associated with exit strategies from the massive monetary and fiscal easing," Roubini wrote. "Policy makers are damned if they do and damned if they don't."

Oil traded up to a 10 month high over the weekend, and carried the commodity based currencies of Canada, Mexico, Norway, and Australia with it. Oil will continue to run up as confidence in a global recovery strengthens. Another factor which has helped boost demand for Australian dollar investments was a move by the Aussie govt. which removed interest withholding tax on federal government securities. This made these investments more attractive and spurred additional demand for the currency.

The Hungarian central bank will meet today and is expected to cut their benchmark interest rate. Rates in Hungary are the highest in the European Union, and lower growth combined with low inflation will spur the cut. The Hungarian forint weakened from the strongest level in a week on the interest cut speculation.

The dollar's role as the world's reserve currency has been a continued topic among scholars and was undoubtedly discussed out in Jackson hole last week. China and Russia have both been adamant about discussing the possibility of moving toward a new reserve system to replace the greenback. Since no single currency is strong enough to replace the dollar in today's global economy, most discussion has centered around the idea of creating a 'reserve currency' which is comprised of a basket of the world's largest currencies. This idea is supported by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist and Columbia University economics professor. "The dollar's role as a good store of value is questionable and the currency has a high degree of risk," Stiglitz said at a conference last Friday. "There is a need for a global reserve system. The currency reserve system is in the process of fraying," Stiglitz said. "The dollar is not a good store of value."

Frank Trotter was thinking about the same thing as he sat and watched a musical over the weekend. Frank is a real thinker, and I really enjoy it when I get a chance to have a good economic discussion with him. Luckily for all of you Pfennig readers, he decided to send me a note on his thoughts during the performance. So here they are:

"Went to the touring musical Mary Poppins Saturday night; it's always great to see a play about a run on a bank. While the books were written in the 1930's and beyond most of you will remember the Disney film set in 1910 - before the Great War when England ruled the waves and empire was returning untold dividends to the mother country. At that time of course there was no questioning the power, status and earning capacity of the British Empire. As George Banks replies to Admiral Boom in the movie, "Credit rates are moving up, up, up. And the British pound is the admiration of the world."
Well that was then and this is now. Soon after, in 1914 England suspended the conversion of Bank of England notes to gold for the period surrounding World War I, and the on again off again slide into today's fiat currency world began. Over the next 100 years England has leaned the lesson of empires that came before. That extending the resources of a country in non-producing capacity leads to the decline of the currency and a fall in the economic power of the country and the economic wellbeing of it's population. In 1910 it took 4.25 pounds to buy an ounce of gold, and 0.2056 pounds to buy a US dollar. Today of course the price of gold has risen 13,447% for British buyers, while the price of a greenback is only up 195%. We are uncomfortably comfortable in feeling that the carabineers have given way for the good old USA in a parallel fashion.
We'll freely admit that there has been a slow motion slide going on in the US dollar since establishment, and especially since the removal from the gold standard and the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971. But we feel even more strongly that the fiscal and monetary policies put in place starting in 2001, accelerating through the 2000's, and now amplified since January 20th have left us with no legs for our stool. Fiscal policy has been and continues to be out of control. The Federal Reserve policy of the 2000's created the credit bubble and now stands to create the largest monetary inflation experienced in a first world nation. Both political parties have determined that no one can be an adult in government by slashing spending or raising taxes to cover our exploding gap (mathematically the only two options), and instead are hiding behind the invisible tax of currency depreciation. For a country we conclude that a strong currency is essential to long term well being, and by extension that our government has given up on the dream in exchange for election and reelection.
So what's to be done? If you are a believer that the political process can sort things out and return our wonderful nation to fiscal prudence and steady governance go ahead and stay the course. For the rest of us who like Margaret Thatcher believe that "the problem with socialism is that eventually you run our of other people's money", we'll be letting our "tuppance safely invested in the bank" seek diversification across the globe in countries and markets with more opportunity and prudence. We couldn't agree more with the Mary Poppins conclusion, re-written for modern times that "Where stands the banks of [the USA], America stand. Oh, oh, oh, oh! When falls the banks of [the USA], America falls!"

Leave it to Frank to use Mary Poppins to give an economics lesson! And with that, I will close this out and head to the currency roundup.

Currencies today 8/24/09: A$ .8400, kiwi .6845, C$ .9251, euro 1.4308, sterling 1.6492, Swiss .9424, rand 7.7805, krone 6.045, SEK 7.0496, forint 187.60, zloty 2.8755, koruna 17.775, yen 94.86, sing 1.4396, HKD 7.7505, INR 48.5575, China 6.8314, pesos 12.7805, BRL 1.8299, dollar index 78.17, Oil $73.98, 10-year 3.56%, Silver $14.42, and Gold... $953.85

That's it for today... Thanks to both Chuck and Frank for giving me so much good stuff to include in today's Pfennig! Kristin Kuchem sent me a note and told me she got stranded in the Chicago airport on her way back from San Fran last night. It is her son Jack's first day of Kindergarten so she was pretty bummed out that she couldn't get home to send him off. Flying just isn't much fun anymore, as the airlines overbook most flights and any kind of weather can royally screw up your best laid plans. Hopefully Kristin can make it back down from Chicago in time to pick Jack up from school. John Smoltz had an impressive first outing for the Cardinals yesterday, setting a club record with 7 strikeouts in a row! Sure looks like this is going to be a fun October here in St. Louis. Hope everyone has a Marvelous Monday and a great start to your week!

Chris Gaffney, CFA
Vice President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

U. of Michigan Spoils The Party...

Chuck Butler — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:57:26 GMT

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In This Issue..

* Risk Aversion comes back strong!
* Risk assets get sold...
* What games will be played with TIC's?
* 40 years since Woodstock!

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

U. of Michigan Spoils The Party...

Good day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! A great weekend that was filled with watching my little buddy, Alex, play football, hosting a surprise 30th birthday party for my little girl, Dawn, and a sweep of the Padres by the Cardinals! This week gets cut short with me a the helm, as I head to San Francisco on Thursday. Chris will have the conn on the Pfennig Thursday through Monday.

Well... Who'd a thunk it? Yes, who would have thought that the U. of Michigan Consumer Confidence could turn the markets upside down and spoil the party? Well... It happened on Friday! The U. of Michigan Confidence Survey for Aug unexpectedly dropped to 63.2, from the previous month's 66 level. The real drop though was from the forecast for this month which was 69! The drop brought the index to a five-month low.

CPI printed at 0%, Industrial Production rose and so did Capacity Utilization in July... But none of it could get the taste of the U. of Michigan Consumer Confidence out of the markets mouths. It was the Humpty Dumpty economy once again... All the king's men couldn't erase the drop of Consumer Confidence.

And, the return of the risk aversion campers swamped the markets. And all day Friday, we saw losses in value of stocks, commodities and currencies. In the overnight markets, the return of risk aversion got even stronger. From what I understand happened, it seems that China's largest steel makers announced that they were going to se iron ore prices at 35% below the benchmark. This sent shockwaves through the commodities, and that has carried over to further losses in the currencies...

The euro has just fallen through the 1.41 handle, and is taking all the other currencies with it to the woodshed... That is, except of course, Japanese yen. I've gone through this so many times in the past, I think you all know exactly what I'm going to say, before I say it... But, for those of you new to class, when the risk aversion crowds fill the markets, investors head for the hills, thus selling their "risk assets" of which currencies are a part of. However, there are two currencies that the mental giants believe to be "safe havens"... One pick is ridiculous, and the other one is even more ridiculous as "safe havens"... But you can't fight the markets, and they deem Japanese yen and U.S. dollars as "safe havens"... Me? Personally? I deem one to be a currency that should be circling the bowl! And the other? It's iffy for sure... I don't think you need me to tell you which one is which!

Of course, the Japanese yen has its moments... And one of those came last night in the form of their 2nd QTR GDP. The Japanese economy grew 3.7% in the 2nd QTR, thus ending their recession... But just like the Australian economy that we talked about last week, and needing to see if it can maintain this growth after the removal of "fiscal candy", the same is true for Japan. But Hey! 3.7% growth is still pretty impressive, for Japan!

This morning, as I look over the headlines on the Bloomie, I see one story that says the euro will fall to 1.30 VS the dollar, and two other stories that say the opposite, with one saying it will reach 1.45 in the coming days, and the other saying the euro is a "buying opportunity"... Confused? Well, that's the stuff that markets are made of folks... People with differing opinions...

Which brings me to what I will call "Pfennig etiquette" Just because you have a "different opinion" on things that I say, does not give you the right to flood my email box with what you believe is proof that you are correct! Nor does it give you the right to get nasty with me... It's this simple folks... If something is on TV that offends you, what do you do? You change the channel... Carry that over to your FREE subscription to the Pfennig...

OK... Enough of that! Later this morning we'll see German Trade Balance numbers, and... The June TIC Flows data from the U.S. These TIC flows just don't get the attention I believe they should. So, I carry on despite the mental giants in the markets that place importance on data prints! TIC Flows are simply, the net security purchases by foreigners. The U.S. has to sell its Treasuries to finance the ever expanding deficit... And supposedly, these TIC Flows tell us whether that's happening or not. But given the games that people (the Fed and Treasury) play these days, who knows what is real or not? Only the shadow knows!

Don't ask Big Ben Bernanke, he'll tell you he doesn't know, like he did when he was asked by a Senator where $500 Billion that left the Fed's books went... Big Ben said... "I don't know"... Ahem... Big Ben? IF YOU DON'T KNOW... WHO THE )*&(&*)( SHOULD WE ASK?

OK, that was a tangent I didn't plan on going to... But I did... So let's finish the TIC Flows talk, eh Chuck? So... Last month, for instance, the data showed a negative figure, which meant that we did NOT finance our deficit in May! June's data prints today... Let's hope it prints better than the May report!

Speaking of the cartel, I mean the Fed Reserve... I saw this quote by Bill Bonner the other day, and just knew it would fit nicely in with any discussion of the cartel, I mean the Fed, and Big Ben Bernanke... Here's Bill... "And remember, too, the feds don't really have any money to hand out. They can only get money by taking it from its rightful owners - either in taxation or loans. Or, they can print it up themselves. In any case, the money adds nothing real or extra to the economy. It merely distorts the economy...twists it...misleads it...and makes it a bigger mess than it was already."

Yes, that's exactly right, Bill! And something that I've tried to tell my dear readers for some time now... A lot of people don't agree with that... And that's all fine and dandy with me... But I believe that the things that I've researched tells me otherwise... Quite a bit otherwise!

All the good that the Norwegian krone built up last week, has been wiped out by the sell off of Oil prices. And when the Norwegian krone backs off it takes the Swedish version of the crown the krona with it!

The Aussie and kiwi versions of dollars saw their recent lofty levels melt away with the commodities damage from the Chinese steelmakers announcement. These two are still way above their winter of this year's levels, so, it's not all bad...

So... These risk aversion outbreaks have been relatively short in recent months, and not like the risk aversion of last fall and winter... So, we can look to see what might shake the risk aversion campers... As I look over the data calendar for this week, I really don't see anything that "might" scare the risk aversion campers... However, the week is dominated by several reports on Housing & Building... Maybe, just maybe, these reports might show that the Housing market has bottomed, that sales are picking up, and that home prices have stopped falling.... Who knows? Maybe that would be enough to shake up the risk aversion campers!

I was thinking about this while I was typing that previous paragraph... And that is... Even if Home prices show a bottom, how long will it be before they are on the upside of 2 years in the red? Unfortunately, it will be a very long time before that happens! Long Time readers will remember when I used to (what many believed me to be doing, crying wolf), warn about the housing bubble... Shoot, I had people in the mortgage industry that just wouldn't / couldn't come to agree with me... Of course when it all melted down eventually, they admitted to me that they had been drinking the kool-aid, but now see what I had been trying to tell them...

So... When I say that I believe it will be a very long time before that happens, I've got a track record here...

I also was one of the first people to say in 2001 that the dollar was about to go into a secular long term weak trend... You should have seen the emails I got then! Oh, but look at us now... The dollar index has given up over 40% of its value since then! And some individual currencies were doing even better at one point during the trend...

So, with that note... I'll head to the Big Finish!

Currencies today 8/17/09: A$ .8175, kiwi .6665, C$ .90, euro 1.4065, sterling 1.63, Swiss .9250, rand 8.20, krone 6.20, SEK 7.32, forint 194.85, zloty 2.98, koruna 18.33, yen 94.50, sing 1.4520, HKD 7.7505, INR 48.96, China 6.8360, pesos 13.03, BRL 1.8475, dollar index 79.50, Oil $65.80, 10-yr 3.47%, Silver $14.18, and Gold... $936

That's it for today... Well, this past week was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock... From what I understand, the entire music performances of the concert are being put on CD, and will be sold as a box set, as opposed to the original 3 album set, that only included selections of the music... I remember as young man watching this movie, and being blown away by the music. I used to have the movie on VHS, and whenever a new person started working for me, I would give them the tape and tell them to watch it, and report back! HA! So... Getting back to something I said above... We hosted a 30th birthday for my darling daughter, Dawn, on Saturday night. Friends, and family successfully pulled off a surprise for her! Dawn's actual birthday is this Thursday, but I'll be flying to San Francisco, and I wanted to be able to celebrate with her! I'm taking this a little strangely, having a daughter that's 30! WOW! OK... Gotta go... I hope your Monday is Marvelous!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

On The Soapbox!

Chuck Butler — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:46:00 GMT

.........But First, A Word From Our Sponsor..........
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In This Issue..

* Currencies trade in a tight range...
* Soapbox talk...
* QE talk...
* FOMC Day
And Now... Today's Pfennig!

On The Soapbox Again!

Good day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! I've got an interesting thought for you all this morning... I think you'll want to read what I have to tell you this morning and not just skip to the Big Finish! HA! But first, a review of what happened yesterday and in the overnight markets. Are you ready? Then let's go!

Well... Yesterday did NOT turn out to be a Turn-Around Tuesday after all... The small rally I saw right before signing off on the Pfennig yesterday, went "poof" and it was gone. The currencies then traded in a tight range the rest of the day. The High Yielders and Commodities have really taken on some water in the past two days.

In the overnight markets, Japanese yen was the only currency other than the dollar to gain. We've seen this before... In fact from Sept of '08 through Feb of '09, we saw the Japanese yen and dollar move higher together... You may recall that I would question the mental capacity of a trader that thought that Japanese yen was a "safe haven" but at the same time decided that discretion would be better than valor, and not stand in front of that yen bus!

That leads me to what I really wanted to talk about today, and that is... What happens if this great run that stocks have been on since March, suddenly ends? What happens if smart people begin to take profits, and that leads to more selling, and before you know it, things are looking bleak for stocks again? Well... I doubt anyone knows... But... We can look back to last fall's huge reversal of stocks for an indication... And I don't like that indication!

As you know, I've chronicled over and over again, how stocks and currencies have been connected at the hip for some time now... This is contrary to the historical trading pattern of these two risk assets. Currencies have different pricing mechanisms than stocks, and have a low correlation to stocks... But... The markets have put stocks and currencies and even commodities in a bucket labeled "risk assets"... And all that historical trading has been shoved under the bed for now...

With that in mind, and no apparent break in the link of these asset classes in sight, although last Friday's Jobs Jamboree gave us a glimpse of a break, but no follow up occurred, we have to believe that a stock sell off will adversely affect the nice gains the currencies have made this year since March. And with that is my chance to step up on the soap box...

Ahem... Hello? Can you hear me now? Is this microphone turned on? OK... Here we go... I long have told people that the most important thing they can do in their investment portfolios is to diversify, and to add the asset classes of currencies and metals to their portfolios. I ask them... You wouldn't own just one stock would you? Then why own just one currency? Diversification, gives you a hedge against the potential drop in the dollar, which most people truly believe will happen eventually, but with short periods of dollar strength mixed in.

So, if one is "truly diversified" they don't panic when the short periods of dollar strength occur... In fact, over the years, I've seen, what I consider to be really intelligent investors, use the short periods of dollar strength as an opportunity to add to their positions at cheaper prices...

I told the crowd in Vancouver... Markets always do what their supposed to do -- just not when.

So, the dollar may have second winds here and there, and for sometimes up to 5 months, but the idea to diversifying now is to take away the risk of the markets doing what their supposed to do. now! And the idea is that eventually, the Gov't will get what they want (a cheaper dollar to use to pay back their debts), and you will be diversified! And you'll be singing: Jimmy crack corn and I don't care!

Ok... I'll get down from the soap box now... Be careful, Chuck, the balky knee might give out on you!

I had to chuckle this morning, but then the chuckles turned to crying, as I read this story on the Bloomie... "The dollar may weaken should the Federal Reserve unexpectedly say it will keep buying assets", UBS AG, said...

What UBS is referring to here is the Quantitative Easing (QE)... And they feel that the dollar would be taken to the woodshed if the Fed decides to implement more QE...

OK, apparently, the strategist at UBS that wrote the note to Bloomberg, doesn't read the Pfennig! For had he read it, he would have known that the Fed has taken to what I call, "stealth QE"... Recall that on Monday, I told you about a story by Chris Martenson (yes, my fat fingers on Monday typed Mortenson, UGH!) that revealed the plan that the Primary Dealers and the Fed put in place for the last auction of 7-year Treasuries. The Primary Dealers bought the bonds that nobody else wanted, and then a couple of days later, the Fed bought 47% of the purchased bonds by the Primary Dealers!

So... I guess, in the end, if most traders don't read the Pfennig (boy, they don't know what they're missing! HA!), then I guess this thought about more QE might hold some water... But, here's the rub... If the Fed can affectively buy back from the Primary Dealers what the rest of the world didn't want, without announcing it to the world, why then, would they announce it? It's all a shell game folks... With the cartel, I mean, the Fed Reserve in control...

Speaking of the cartel, I mean the Fed Reserve... Their FOMC meets today... And wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up in the morning when the day was new, and see that the FOMC came clean and told everyone that they bought 47% of the Primary Dealers 7-year Treasuries after the last auction? Yeah, right, if you believe that will happen then I'm sure the Gov't has some land it would like to sell you...

I read where 71% of economists surveyed want the FOMC to announce in their statement today following the meeting, that the recession is over... WOW! Now, that would be right up the Fed's alley wouldn't it? I mean how wrong have the Fed and Treasury been about this financial crisis and resulting depression since the get-go? VERY WRONG! So... Go ahead FOMC, say the recession is over... It's my opinion, that they'll be eating those words in the future...

Ok enough! Norway's Central Bank, Norges Bank, is meeting this morning, and I don't expect any movement in their internal interest rate of 1.25%... I would like to see something in writing from the Norges Bank that hints at rate hikes this year... Otherwise, the risk is for krone weakness on the announcement.

I have to think that for now, all the recent good news in Australia has been priced into the currency. The reason I say that is simply because the last couple of data reports showing positive signs for the economy have not moved the A$ one iota... Last night it was Consumer Confidence printing a nice gain of 3.7%, moving the data to the highest level since 2007... But no movement in the A$, except to follow the other High Yielders to softer ground... UGH!

Today... The data cupboard will get a workout here in the U.S. We'll see the color of the Trade Deficit and the Budget Deficits... Of course the color will be RED! For the deficits in these two will be larger than the previous print / month, and there's no dreaming of a turn-around any time in the near or far future!

This Budget Deficit is something that every citizen should be banging on their representatives about every day! And it's getting worse, folks! I've told you about how tax receipts are near the levels of the great depression, which means the revenue to the Gov't is falling, while the Gov't spending continues to grow! But don't let that get in the way of Gov't officials telling us how everything is on the mend, and soon it will all be seashells and balloons...

Remember a couple of months ago or so, I explained to you how when we get to the other side of this deflationary asset price scenario, that we would begin to see inflation pressures? I said that those pressures would be fanned by the fact that people will have money to spend, but retailers won't have inventory to sell them, thus, money chasing too few goods... A few people scoffed at that thought and told me I would be wrong...

Well... It was reported yesterday that wholesale inventory has shrunk for 10 consecutive months! Businesses continued to draw down wholesale inventory in June for the 10th consecutive month, with a fall of -1.7%... Oh! By the way... The 10th consecutive month is a record for continuous inventory decline, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

So, we've got that to look forward to!

OK... Before I go to the Big Finish... I've got an interesting story to share with you!

Before I talk about the story, I want to tell you that a friend of mine just returned from Greece and Italy, and he reports that for the first time that he can recall, people there preferred euros to dollars... Hmmm...

OK, now the story... Well, it seems that it's not just foreigners that are growing tired of choking on dollars... The LA Times reported that Communities in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Arizona and elsewhere are printing their own money to encourage shoppers to patronize local businesses. Local money was last popular during the Great Depression.

Last popularized during the Great Depression, scrip, or locally created stand-ins for U.S. currency, is making a comeback. Pittsboro N.C., population 2,500, is one of a handful of communities that launched its own money in recent months. It reports an avalanche of calls from other communities that have lost faith in the global financial system.

Pittsboro calls their own currency, the Plenty... "The Plenty is not going to get siphoned off to Wall Street, or Washington, or make a stop in Bentonville on its way to China," said B.J. Lawson, a software entrepreneur who is president of the board of the Plenty cooperative. "It gives us self-reliance."

Here's a link to the complete story in the LA Times... Very interesting indeed!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scrip-money11-2009aug11,0,1371794,full.story

And... No... I'm not going to add the "Plenty" to the Currency round-up! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Currencies today 8/12/09: A$ .8235, kiwi .6650, C$ .9070, euro 1.4165, sterling 1.6455, Swiss .9280, rand 8.1440, krone 6.2225, SEK 7.2715, forint 193.45, zloty 2.96, koruna 18.21, yen 95.80, sing 1.4475, HKD 7.7505, INR 48.31, China 6.8350, pesos 13.07, BRL 1.8484, dollar index 79.08, Oil $69.69, 10-yr 3.66%, Silver $14.33, and Gold... $945.70

That's it for today... My little buddy, Alex, comes home from 13-days at camp today. The house has been very quiet without his guitar playing, and drum banging! He comes back and goes directly to football practice tonight. Welcome back bud! It's fun seeing the videos and reading about football training camps in the NFL and College. My beloved Missouri Tigers will have to reload this year, as their core offense went to the NFL! I'm excited to see them play the first game of the new season at the Ed Jones Dome VS Illinois, Labor Day weekend... Cardinals lose but maintain their 3 game lead in the division... Come on boys, this is not the time to begin to coast! OK... Gotta go... I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

House prices move up, but consumers still aren't confident...

Chuck Butler — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:01:37 GMT

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In This Issue..

* House prices move up...
* US consumers are worried...
* Japanese retail sales drag...
* Australian rates to rise...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

House prices move up, but consumers still aren't confident...

Good day... We finally had a bit of volatility in the currency markets yesterday, as conflicting data released in two separate reports moved the markets in opposite directions. The dollar started off the day drifting lower, as has been the pattern over the past 2 weeks. But during the late morning the dollar started gaining strength, and has barely paused its ascent overnight.

Many of you probably heard the news reports that home prices finally rose during the month of May, and this is what had the dollar on the ropes yesterday morning. The S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index reported that home prices in the US rose ever so slightly in May compared to April. But if we look at the annual figures, home prices are still down just over 17% across the country. Media outlets trumpeted this 'feel good' story with many economists declaring that housing has now turned a corner. This is a good sign, as prices have to stabilize before the housing sector can recover, but it is hard to get overly excited about a 17% drop YOY. The monthly figure rose just .5%, reflecting the first monthly gain since July 2006. Another report showed the share of homes sold as foreclosures or otherwise distressed properties fell to about 31% in June, down from a high of 50% seen earlier this year. With unemployment still creeping up, and the US consumer continuing to save instead of spend, I am going to need to see a couple of months of stabilized prices before I am convinced housing is turning the corner here in the US.

Just an hour after the surprisingly good news on the housing front was received, consumer confidence numbers for July were released, and spoiled the party. Higher unemployment is being blamed for dropping just under three points from the Conference Board's consumer confidence index. This was the second consecutive decline, and shocked economists who had predicted no change. Our economy is still consumer driven, so this number resonates with investors who had started moving money back into riskier assets believing the economic recovery was well under way. But US consumers are concerned about the job markets, and will likely continue to keep tighter control of their spending. Despite the rhetoric coming out of the Chinese/US talks (more on this later), the administration is counting on consumers to help pull us out of this recession/depression.

But consumers have a right to be worried, and will likely continue to keep a tight hold on their wallets. After all, the economy has lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007; the biggest employment slump in over 80 years. Official estimates predict double digit unemployment by the end of this year, and our unofficial estimates have pegged the number in the double digits since the first quarter of 2009. Without good prospects for employment, US consumers are finally realizing the intelligence of being frugal. Savings rates in the US continue to climb, but while that is good in the long run (and exactly what I believe they should be doing) it doesn't help fuel a quick turn around for the economy.

Investors and the administration worry that the higher savings rate and slower economic growth will lead to deflation, and have been hoping instead to see some signs of inflation. But a bit of deflation is really not that bad, and can actually be healthy for the economy. While he was in Vancouver last week, Chuck sent me the following quote from our friend Doug Casey regarding deflation...
"Deflation is actually a good thing, because in a deflation prices drop and money becomes more valuable, so deflation encourages people to save money. Deflation rewards the prudent saver and punishes the profligate borrower. The way a society, like an individual, becomes wealthy is by producing more than it consumes. In other words, by saving, not borrowing. And during a deflation, when money becomes more valuable, everybody wants money. They want to save. Whereas during an inflation, you want to get rid of the money. You want to consume. You want to spend. But you don't become wealthy by spending and consuming; you become wealthy by producing and saving.

Inflation encourages people to borrow, because they expect to pay the debt off with cheaper dollars. It encourages people to mortgage their future.

The basic economic fallacy in this is that a high level of consumption is good. Well, consumption is neither good or bad. The problem is the emphasis on consumption financed by debt -- which leads to the national bankruptcy we're facing. It's much healthier to have an emphasis on production, financed by savings."

I think Doug hit the nail on the head, but as he points out, most economists fear deflation and have convinced the administration that the only way out of our current recession/depression is to borrow and spend. Hopefully US consumers will continue to fight the urge to re-leverage, even if it does extend the downturn. A bit of pain now can and will avert a whole lot of pain in the future.

But the markets don't like the thought of frugal US consumers so the stock market sold off, and investors ran for the cover of US treasuries sending the dollar higher. Asian markets continued the sell off overnight causing a reversal of the carry trades which had just started to be popular again. Risk aversion is back in vogue, so the high yielding currencies which had been benefitting got sold off. The biggest drop was in the Australian dollar which fell nearly 1% vs. the US. As you would expect, the South African rand and Mexican peso also sold off, but surprisingly so did the Japanese yen.

Japanese retail sales fell for a 10th month in June, extending the longest losing streak since 2003. Deflation is still gripping the Japanese economy, and a report released earlier this week showed Corporate prices dropped 3.2% from a year earlier. As I stated earlier, a bit of deflation isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly stalls out any sort of economic recovery. The problem with deflation is that once it takes hold, it is very hard to combat. Japanese consumers have traditionally had one of the highest savings rates, and their economy has been treading water for a number of years. The Japanese are relying on the global economic rebound to help stimulate exports which will drive their economy back up.

The ideal situation is some happy medium between the two extremes. A slow growth/ low inflation environment is what we should strive for. Not high growth fueled by high leverage, or no growth with very high savings rates. So the current swing by US consumers toward a higher savings rate is a good thing, as long as we eventually start spending these savings and keep leverage to a minimum.

Numbers to be released later today will continue to call into question the recovery of the US economy. Orders for Durable Goods in the US probably fell in June for the first time in three months. The major automobile factories shuts down for part of the month, causing a drop in the overall number. Ex autos, the number will likely be unchanged from the May figure. Mortgage applications were already reported this morning, and showed another dramatic drop. The 'refinancing boom' which the government created earlier this year has petered out, and unless additional stimulus money is thrown at home buyers, the housing recovery will be a long drawn out process. And finally, the Fed's Beige book will be released later today. This report details how the economy is performing in each of the Fed's districts, and is expected to confirm the US economy is starting to bottom out, but no rapid recovery is in sight.

An economy which seems to be starting to recover more rapidly is Australia where central bank Governor Glenn Stevens signaled rates may rising sooner rather than later. "I've never seen written down or heard in discussion some rule that says we wait until unemployment is peaking before we lift the cash rate," Stevens said in Sydney yesterday. Stevens also said the economy may rebound faster than the central bank forecast six months ago as consumer and business confidence surges. The AUD$ touched its high for 2009 yesterday at .8338 before retreating back below .82 on the carry trade reversal. I would think any pull back by this currency is an excellent opportunity for investors to jump into this currency which we predict will end up one of the best performers of the year.

Whenever I talk about the Aussie dollar, I naturally move to its kissin cousin across the Tasman, the New Zealand dollar. New Zealand central bank Governor Alan Bollard will probably match Governor Steven's moves and keep rates unchanged at their meeting tomorrow. The recent reversal of carry trades has caused this currency to turn around, but as with the AUD$, a move lower should be seen as a buying opportunity.

India left rates unchanged overnight, signaling an end to its deepest round of interest rate cuts. The central bank is concerned that inflation will creep up as the Asian economies recover. Interest rate expectations have turned the currency around as the Indian rupee has increased about 1.5% vs. the US$ during the last two weeks.

I'm filling in for Chuck this morning on a conference call with the Big Boss, Frank Trotter, so I'll have to end it here and move to the currency wrap-up:

Currencies today 7/29/09: A$ .8204, kiwi .6574, C$ .9212, euro 1.4136, sterling 1.6379, Swiss .9274, rand 7.9065, krone 6.2205, SEK 7.4936, forint 190.64, zloty 2.9671, koruna 18.0674, yen 94.91, sing 1.4418, HKD 7.7500, INR 48.4262, China 6.8324, pesos 13.2659, BRL 1.8809, dollar index 79.092, Oil $65.84, 10-year 3.65%, Silver $13.6125, and Gold... $935.79

That's it for today... My wife qualified for combat pay as she took my 10 year old daughter, Lauren and three of her friends to the Jonas Brothers concert last night. I love my daughter, but I'm not sure I would have been able to stand 3 hours of 20,000 screaming tweens. Finally got some summer thunderstorms last night, and it continues to rain today. I hope Chuck and his family are staying dry camping down in southern Missouri. The Cardinals looked great last night, as the new offense which they have picked up in their recent moves seems to be starting to click. Hope everyone has a Wonderful Wednesday!!
Chris Gaffney, CFA
Vice President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Home sales improve...

Chuck Butler — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:29:00 GMT

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In This Issue..

* Home sales improve...
* Are we there yet...
* Intervention talks...
* Buying on dips...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Good day...and a Fabulous Friday to you. As I was sitting here this morning collecting my thoughts, it just hit me like a ton of bricks that we're already towards the end of July and next weekend brings us into August...where's the pause button when you need it. Anyway, yesterday started out like any other quiet morning so far this week but we did see a nice little run in the currencies only to see profit taking as we moved into the late afternoon. As I turned the computer screens on this morning, I see where the overnight markets brought us right back up to the levels we began with this time yesterday. The big story that moved the markets was the better than expected housing numbers that, again, gave investors that warm and fuzzy feeling that I touched on yesterday. Since I already let the cat out of the bag, I'll jump right in...

Sales of existing homes rose for a third consecutive month in June to an annual rate of 4.89 million, which was better than the forecast of 4.84 million that most economists were expecting. May's figure was actually revised down to 4.72 million from the original posting of 4.77, so the month on month rise came in much higher at 3.6% than the expected 1.5% increase. June is traditionally seen as one of the busiest months in the real estate market as families try to make the adjustment in between school years so it wasn't exactly a surprise to see better than expected numbers.

Lower borrowing costs, foreclosure driven price declines, and tax incentives also contributed to these higher numbers. This is certainly good news to hear and I hope the bottom has already passed us by or is near, but as I mentioned yesterday, I won't get too excited until unemployment gets back to a supportive level and the full backing of the consumer underpins this move. If anything, this may end up being a protracted bottom and a slow road to normalized levels.

We also had the weekly initial jobless and continuing claims released yesterday but was overshadowed by the positive housing numbers that came out. The initial jobless figure came in 30,000 higher than last week to 554k but continuing claims backed off a bit to 6.23 million from last week's revision up to 6.31 million. Bernanke said earlier this week that job insecurity, together with declines in home values and tight credit, is likely to limit gains in consumer spending. With that being said, it still looks like we have plenty of breakers to get through before we reach the safety of calmer waters.

Today doesn't bring us much in the way of reporting as the only data due out is the final printing of the U. of Michigan consumer confidence number for July. The preliminary figure was released a couple of weeks ago and fell more than forecast to 64.6 from June's 70.8 reading. This generally isn't a big market mover but its expected to settle in a tad higher at 65. This one is a tough call as the stock market has risen quite a bit in that time period but we'll see if job and income concerns keep this month's number grounded. Since this is all we get today, it will be interesting to see how much attention the markets give this report.

Just as we saw the Dow hit the 9000 mark for the first time since January and the euphoria of the housing market has gained momentum, well respected economist Nouriel Roubini, had a different take on things. In a report released today, concern was expressed that a perfect storm of fiscal deficits, rising bond yields, soaring oil prices, weak profits, and a stagnant labor market could blow the recovering world economy back into a double dip recession. He went on the to say that its getting more likely unless a clear exit strategy from the massive monetary and fiscal stimulus is outlined even before it is implemented. I guess the moral of the story here is to proceed with caution and buckle your seat belt because the ride could get bumpy.

Moving on to currencies, the Swedish krona and the Canadian dollar both posted 1% gains yesterday while the Japanese yen, New Zealand dollar, and Swiss franc rounded out the bottom. The two currencies at the top of the list had much different reasons for ending the day where they did as the krona traded higher primarily on the back of risk appetite. As investors feel more comfortable with buying riskier assets, the thinner traded currencies like the krona, benefit even though Sweden's unemployment rate rose for a second month in June to 9.8%.

The Canadian dollar, on the other hand, rose to a 7 week high as the central bank said the recession is nearing an end brought on by higher commodity prices and consumer confidence. The central bank kept rates at the record low of .25% a couple of days ago and reiterated they will stay there for a while unless inflation becomes a problem. Since Chuck is across the border in Canada right now, it's a perfect time to get our daily dose:

"I was reading the local paper the other day, and the business section had a big story on the Bank of Canada's (BOC) Gov. Carney and how he vows he will intervene to keep the loonie from going higher... In the last two days since that story appeared, the loonie has done nothing but gain vs. the green/peachback... 91-cents it traded through yesterday! I can't help but think that traders are beginning to believe that Central Bankers are imitating the boy who cried wolf... We had the Brazilian Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank, and now the BOC... They all are giving verbal warnings about traders taking their currencies higher...

The Central Bankers do this under the disguise of "we don't want deflation in our economy" opting for the weaker currency to introduce inflation... I think this is all a smokescreen! I think this is a coordinated effort to keep their currencies from going hog-wild VS the dollar... The Central Bankers all know that the dollar is teetering, and without speed bumps we could see a mad exit for the door for dollar holders... Just what I think... Nothing more, nothing less... Just my thoughts... "

Thanks again Chuck, its always great to get your insight. Since we're already talking about central bank intervention, I saw a report today that has some looking for the Swiss National Bank getting back into the game. According to the Big Mac index, which is a purchasing power parity figure using the cost of a Big Mac as the measure, the Swiss franc is the second most expensive in Europe. Its just a fun little tid bit I thought would be good to break the monotony. Anyway, the Swiss franc is largely influenced by the euro and risk appetite so while the SNB may step in, there's really no way to stop the moving train. As Chuck has said many times before, the markets have much deeper pockets than a central bank.

As I got to the office yesterday, the euro was hovering around 1.42 and climbed just shy of 1.43 to 1.4291 before we saw the profit taking drag it down to 1.4150 on my out the door. I saw a report where the euro had established a base at 1.4050 and calls to buy on dips, which is certainly a strategy that would be consistent with our views. As I touched on above, the Asian and overnight markets have run things right back to the levels from yesterday but as the European traders hand the books to those in New York before heading out for the weekend, the dollar is still getting sold. Don't look now, but I see the euro at 1.4250...hopefully we can hold on to this and finish the week on a positive note. It looks like the euro is also getting some help from within as reports showed the contraction in European manufacturing and services slowed more than expected and German business confidence improved.

While I'm talking about Europe, we had some positive new come out of the UK as retail sales quadrupled the estimate and surprised the markets with a June gain of 1.2%. Year over year sales are actually up 2.9% and has economists looking for a near zero GDP figure in the second quarter. HSBC actually raised their forecast for the pound from 1.60 to 1.75 by year end 2010 and justified the call by saying the likelihood of an interruption in the asset buying program from the BOE could be as soon as next month. They also feel rates will rise before the Fed but this is a long way off and a lot can happen. Just like the US, I don't see enough at this point to be comfortable buying this currency, but hey, we've been early on some calls too.

One of our newest multi-currency CDs, the Global Power Shift CD, has also been keeping the phones busy lately. With commodities and commodity based currencies leading the charge, it seems like we talk about at least one of them everyday, so I thought I would give it a mention. This CD combines the Australian dollar, the Brazilian real, the Canadian dollar, and the Norwegian krone into one instrument and just provides you with a little bit of everything...not a bad way to provide that hedge against a weakening dollar and gain exposure to commodities at the same time. Well, its about that time and I need to wrap it up so on to the big finish...

Currencies today 7/24/2009: A$ .8170, kiwi .6573, C$ .9214, euro 1.4230, sterling 1.6462, Swiss .9353, rand 7.7236, krone 6.2308, SEK 7.4710, forint 188.04, zloty 2.9538, koruna 17.9280, yen 94.86, sing 1.4407, HKD 7.7500, INR 48.2750, China 6.8316, pesos 13.1903, BRL 1.8991, dollar index 78.686, Oil $67.25, Silver $13.7850, and Gold... 952.86

That's it for today...its your Friday!! I just wanted to send congrats toward St. Louis native Mark Buehrle, pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, as he became the 18th player to throw a perfect game...truly a remarkable feat. Our office has a team in a local kickball league so I wonder if our pitcher, Tim Smith, was able to match that performance...lol. It was a rough go this morning as the words just didn't come all that easy for me but hopefully I was able to make some sense of it all. Alright, its really getting late so I need to get going here. Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend...Until next time
Mike Meyer
Assistant Vice President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Risk aversion returns…

Chuck Butler — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:11:25 GMT

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In This Issue..

* Risk Aversion returns...
* Money Multiplier dampens stimulus effects...
* TIC flows show concern of foreign investors...
* China back on growth track...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Risk aversion returns...

Good day... Chuck got an early start on a two week hiatus from the desk, so you will be stuck with me writing the Pfennig for the next two weeks. But don't worry, you will still get a small dose of Chuck over the next week as he typically emails me his thoughts while on the road (I call it Pfennig Pfodder). Risk aversion dominated the currency markets overnight, as terrorists set off two separate explosions in Jakarta and investors moved money back into the 'safe havens' of the US$ and Japanese yen.

Chuck wrote about this move yesterday, believing the bad news regarding CIT would probably cause a risk reversal. But the US stock market shook off the CIT news and rallied higher after a big earnings report by JP Morgan and a somewhat positive statement by Nouriel Roubini. Roubini, the New York University economist who is credited with predicting the financial crisis, said in a speech yesterday that the US economy might be close to the bottom. The stock jockeys took this statement along with the positive earnings reports and ran stocks up. But Roubini later tried to caution these bulls against reading too much into his statement, and reminded everyone that he has not changed his thoughts on a US recovery: "I continue to see a shallow, below par and below trend recovery."

Those looking for a quick v shaped recovery will be disappointed, as we continue to believe the recovery here in the US will be more of an L shape as our economy struggles to recover. After all, who is going to propel the US economy to recovery? In past recessions, we have been able to depend on the US consumer to pull us back out. But the poor consumer is now facing the highest unemployment rate post WWII combined with falling home prices and much stricter lending policies. And with the dire fiscal position of most states matching that of the federal government, the tax burden placed on almost all taxpayers will likely be rising, chewing up more of consumers disposable income. We are no longer be able to rely on US consumers to 'borrow and spend' our way to GDP growth (which is actually a good thing!!). Consumers are tightening their belts, and saving a larger percentage of their income; good news for the consumers, but bad news for the economy.

The administration has tried to take over where the US consumer left off by borrowing record amounts of money and injecting it into the economy through stimulus packages. But recent data bring into question whether or not this stimulus is having the desired effect, and many are now questioning whether any fiscal measures can pull the economy out of recession. With the credit markets still tight, and the negative outlook for consumer demand, no amount of government intervention seems able to stop the decline in jobs and quickly pull the US out of this recession/depression. The reason is that the 'multiplier effect' of the stimulus money is too low. Typically when the government injects funds into the economy, the effect of each dollar they spend is multiplied several times over as it moves through the lending / spending cycles. It works like this: $1,000,000 given to a bank by the Fed is lent out to consumers and business who then spend the funds on goods and services. The companies who sell the goods and services place a majority of these funds back into the bank who then turn around and lend them back out, starting the cycle all over again. But recently neither the banks or the consumers are acting 'normal'. Banks who have received stimulus funds are using them to shore up balance sheets and keeping them in reserves. Consumers who have received stimulus funds, or are strong enough to qualify for loans have been doing the same thing; using the funds to pay down debts and saving a larger percentage. So the multiplier effect of each dollar injected by the administration has been much smaller than in years past. While some in the administration are calling for another stimulus package, others are now realizing the impact of government stimulus will continue to be decreased by the low multiplier. The government should probably just let the recession take its course, and avoid adding more debt to our already over burdened tax payers.

But 'big government' is back, and the current administration obviously feels it is their job to make government even bigger. Chuck had this to say about this weeks earlier announcement of a new government run health care program:

"The Big Debate right now is a National Health Care program... I'll come right out front and center and say that I'm not for it, which shouldn't surprise anyone that's been reading this letter very long. But there's someone else who should be more important a figure against this than I think the media is reporting...

I'm talking about Douglas Elmendorf, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office who, under questioning by members of the Senate Budget Committee, had this to say...
"Instead of saving the federal government from fiscal catastrophe, the health reform measures being drafted by congressional Democrats would worsen an already bleak budget outlook, increasing deficit projections and driving the nation more deeply into debt."

He went on to say... That "bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate Health Committee do NOT propose the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount."

But... I doubt they listen to him... For when it comes to spending and driving up the deficits.. They haven't listened to former CBO director, Alice Rivlin... And they haven't listened to former Comptroller General, David Walker... Why the current CBO director now?"

Data released yesterday showed the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since January. But like last week, these jobless claims were skewed by the Labor Department's 'adjustments'. As I explained last week, the automakers typically lay off workers during July, so the BLS adds back thousands of jobs in order to offset these seasonal layoffs. But this year, the auto plants laid off these workers months ago, so the seasonal adjustments are adjusting away actual job layoffs, not just temporary automobile layoffs. These distortions will likely continue for the next few weeks, with the weekly numbers climbing back over 600,000 in August when the seasonal adjustments end.

The TIC flows were also released yesterday and showed International demand for long term US financial assets weakened in May. Investors sold the most Treasury notes and bonds in six months, with the net Long-term TIC flows dropping almost $20 billion. The 'experts' had predicted a rise of $16.5 billion in purchases. But as investors dumped long term Treasuries, purchases of US stocks in May were the strongest since January of 2008. So the impact of these flows were minimal on the value of the US$. The administration has to be worrying about the direction of the TIC flows, as it continues to bring record amounts of Treasuries to the markets. If investors shy away from the new debt, interest rates will be driven higher putting further pressure on our 'stealth recovery'.

After reviewing the numbers, I spotted another item which should be cause for concern. The report showed foreign governments were moving from the longer term maturities of Treasury notes and bonds into shorter term bills which have a maturity of less than one year. Foreign governments continue to be worried about the future ability of the US to maintain our record deficits. The Chinese economy continues to grow, and is propelling them to a much more important status among global leaders. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo continues to express concerns regarding his country's US Treasury holdings, and officials in Japan, the second largest investor, have also begun to express concern. The administration is calling in the big guns to try and assuage China's concerns. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will brief Chinese officials at a summit this month about how the US plans to keep inflation in check over the next few years. The summit is the first high-level gathering of its kind since President Obama took office.

China reported yesterday that their economy grew 7.9% in the 2nd QTR, which was greater than the 7.7% forecast by economists, and the 6.1% that was booked in the 1st QTR. This was the first acceleration in growth in more than two years, and comes on the heels of a $585 billion stimulus package which was targeted at increasing infrastructure and getting credit flowing again. The positive growth number will likely cause them to start raising rates in 2010 according to a Bloomberg news survey. Economists predict the one-year lending rate will climb over 50 basis points after remaining steady for the rest of the year. China is the only one of the 10 biggest economies that is expanding, and confirms what we have been saying for some time: China will be the engine which propels the global economy out of recession.

Chuck noticed the good numbers out of China before heading out yesterday, and sent me the following:

"This news must be manna from heaven for Australian commodity exporters... As I've said for some time now... China's economic strength = strong demand for raw materials, of which Australia is not only geographically positioned to supply China with raw materials, but has the raw materials to supply to China! And demand for Australian raw materials is a proxy for commodities as a whole... And, will underpin the A$!"

If you agree with what Chuck is saying regarding the A$, it may be a good time to buy some more as the AUD$ slid below .80 overnight due to risk aversion. Both the AUD$ and NZD$ fell against the dollar and the yen as investors shifted to safe haven currencies. The New Zealand dollar fell the most in two weeks after Fitch Ratings cut the nation's long term sovereign credit rating outlook to negative. Fitch said the nation's deficit is large and a "stronger fiscal adjustment than currently planned" may be needed. First, I think everyone should treat anything coming out of the rating agencies with caution. But I agree that the nation's deficit is too large, but the news coming out of China should go a long way toward pushing these commodity exporting countries back into the black. As Chuck says above, as China expands the commodity currencies should stay well bid.

Before I head to the big finish, Chuck wanted me to make this announcement to all the Pfennig readers....

After 2 long years of looking for the next MarketSafe CD to issue, I decided to put together the countries that have been in the news lately. So... Introducing: The EverBank MarketSafe BRICK CD! This will be a 3-year CD that will have FDIC protection, 100% Principal Protection, and 100% of the upside of the combined values of the currencies from Brazil, Russia, India and China! If the combined values of these 4 currencies should go down in 3 years, you'll get your principal back!

To invest in this new MarketSafe CD, you need to either go to: www.everbank.com where after reviewing the offering you will be able to apply for the CD right on line, or by calling the trading desk @ 1-800-926-4922 for the details.

Currencies today 7/17/09: A$ .8000, kiwi .6444, C$ .8945, euro 1.4100, sterling 1.6291, Swiss .9276, rand 8.102, krone 6.3926, SEK 7.8203, forint 194.08, zloty 3.0682, koruna 18.3992, yen 93.83, sing 1.4504, HKD 7.7501, INR 48.68, China 6.8316, pesos 13.58, BRL 1.9318, dollar index 79.49, Oil $61.93, 10-year 3.56%, Silver $13.19, and Gold... $934.45

That's it for today... The EverBank kickball team pulled out another victory last night in a tightly contested match. Happily, none of our players were injured, but a player on the opposing team did a faceplant which still has everyone on the desk laughing. The weather here in St. Louis has turned fall like, and we are supposed to have record lows over the weekend. Should be perfect for a triathlon I am competing in Sunday morning. Hope everyone has a Fantastic Friday and a Wonderful Weekend!!

Chris Gaffney, CFA
Vice President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

Frightened investors move back into US treasuries.....

Chuck Butler — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:46:50 GMT

.........But First, A Word From Our Sponsor..........
The Ultra Resource Index CD: 6 foreign currencies, 1 unique opportunity

The Ultra Resource currencies (each is equally represented in the CD):

*Australian dollar
*Canadian dollar
*Hong Kong dollar
*New Zealand dollar
*Norwegian krone
*Singapore dollar

EverBank is a Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender.
......................................................

In This Issue..

* Jobs data skewed by 'seasonal adjustments'...
* BOE surprises the market...
* Oil falls below $60...
* China's reserves continue to grow...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

Frightened investors move back into US treasuries.....

Good day...Chuck has a bevy of doctor's appointments today, so he decided to let me take over the Pfennig. Unfortunately it will go out a little later than usual, as I always struggle to get all of my thoughts together so early in the morning. Its not that I come in late (I was here two hours before everyone else) but it just takes me much longer than Chuck to get it all on paper. But enough of the excuses, I've got to get writing.

Weekly jobless claims released in the US yesterday morning fell below 600k for the first time since January but the continuing claims continue to rise, hitting another record. The slight improvement in the weekly numbers was distorted by the automotive sector. Car companies typically shut down plants in early July in order to change over to the new model year. Bankruptcy forced many of these plants to shut down much earlier than normal, and some temporarily started up production again during the past few weeks.

Chuck would have a field day with the jobless claims, as the government economists were hard at work 'massaging' the numbers to give everyone a more 'clear' picture of the data (why can't they just report the actual number of people filing for unemployment?). As Chuck has pointed out, the Labor Department adjusts the figures using seasonal and demographic trends, creating 'ghost jobs'. Since automobile plants typically shut down in the first weeks of July, the labor department expected a large increase in claims during this time. In order to offset these 'seasonal factors', the brain trust at the Labor Department added back a number of jobs in order to balance out the expected temporary layoffs in the auto sector. You would think the Labor Department would realize that most of these automobile workers were already idled, and therefore keep the adjustments to a minimum. But that would be too logical, so they just went ahead and 'seasonally adjusted' the claims as if this was a typical July for the auto sector.

The continuing claims illustrate a much clearer picture of the US job market, with unemployment spiking up to 9.5% in the US. The news from the retail sector was also gloomy, as the ICSC Chain Store Sales fell another 5.1% YOY during the month of June. Inventories also continued to shrink for a ninth month in a row in May to just over $400 billion. This is the lowest level since August of 2007, and raises some longer term inflationary concerns. Some of you are probably questioning this last statement, so I will explain.

Lower retail sales have forced stores to keep inventories down. I was in a local Walmart store the other day and noticed the shelves were emptier than what I have seen in the past, items weren't stacked 5 deep and didn't reach toward the ceiling. US consumers have been buying less and saving more, a very good thing! But stores have reacted by dropping the amount of inventory they are carrying (again a smart thing for retailers). Against this backdrop, the US government continues to flood the economy with cash, trying to get consumers to start spending again to jumpstart the economy. For now, the cash has been hoarded by banks and used by consumers to pay down some of their massive debt. Eventually the 'all clear' horn will sound, and consumers will start looking to make purchases again, but will find empty shelves. Inflation will follow, as too much cash will be chasing too few goods.

But our government has a much shorter term view, and continues to pump money into our economy with no real regard for future inflationary concerns. And some very smart economists seem to agree with the administration. Both Nouriel Roubini and Robert Shiller, respected economists, are calling for additional stimulus. In a radio interview yesterday, Roubini predicted the US recession will last another six months and be followed by a 'shallow' recovery. On the same radio show, Shiller said the economic crisis would continue despite the $12.8 trillion pledged by the US government and Federal Reserve.

The BOE shook up the markets with a surprise announcement not to increase its quantitative easing program. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee put the program designed to pump extra cash into the markets by purchasing its own debt on hold after announcing it would also keep interest rates steady at .5%. The move was a major surprise to the markets, and sent the price of gilts (the UK's treasury bonds) falling and the price of the Pound Sterling higher. The BOE was the first of the western central banks to begin the controversial program in which it monetizes its debt; hitting the overdrive button on the printing presses by monetizing its debt. We've never been a fan of the Quantitative Easing programs, as they are short sighted with total disregard for the future inflationary pressures the exert on the economy. But several other central banks, desperate for a way to get cash into their economies have followed the BOE's lead.

The move by the BOE was even more surprising given the fact that the Chancellor has authorized another 25 billion pounds to be added to the program. Perhaps the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is finally starting to realize all of the QE which it has done hasn't really had the desired impact. Much of the extra cash being created by the program is simply being hoarded by banks and is not making its way out into the economy via loans. Sound familiar? We have a similar situation occurring here in the US, with banks sitting on a majority of the stimulus monies which they have received. They have used the funds to shore up their balance sheets, a good thing long term, but not what the central banks intended with the introduction of the QE programs.

But enough of the economic talk, I need to let you know what happened to the currency markets overnight!! In spite of the Labor departments attempts to 'adjust' the weekly jobless claims, the economic data released here in the US yesterday was generally poor. This raised further concerns regarding the global economic recovery, and forced investors back into the US treasury market. As typical during these periods of uncertainty, the Japanese yen was the best performing currency. This is due to a general deleveraging as investors purchase yen to pay down debts used to invest into higher yielding assets.

We have seen this pattern repeat several times over the past year. As investors start to see some signs of recovery in the global economy, they invest into the higher yielding currencies, and borrow funds at lower rates available in Japan. But as soon as they begin to question the recovery, they move back out of the higher yielders and pay back these loans in the Japanese yen. Morgan Stanley believes the recent move by the yen is just the beginning of another big move, predicting a move to 85 yen/dollar. The foreign exchange strategists at Morgan Stanley predict the yen will continue to rally through the end of the year as doubts about the global recovery intensify. But their longer term predictions are less enthusiastic, as they feel the yen will weaken throughout 2010.

The commodity currencies took a hit over the past few days as the price of oil and metals continued to fall. Oil fell below $60 per barrel for the first time in a couple of months. Concerns over the global recovery, along with some slight calming of tensions in the gulf states have caused the price to drop. One commodity currency which has been able to hold steady during the recent selloff is the Brazilian real. A report that car sales in China surged bolstered the outlook for the commodity rich country. China's passenger-vehicle sales rose 48% in June, pushing China past the US as the world's largest auto market.

Increased automobile demand in China is another sign of their slow move away from an export based emerging market economy to that of a more balanced one. China's exports tumbled for an eighth month in June, but internal demand helped by the government's stimulus package is offsetting some of the impact of these falling exports. Imports also fell, but the size of the decrease was the least in eight months. This is good sign for the future of China, as imports are typically a leading indicator for exports in China.

China's foreign exchange reserves likely topped $2 trillion for the first time, climbing another $67.8 billion in the second quarter. The central bank is predicted to release the number sometime today. The increase in reserves certainly cause concern in the currency markets, as officials in China continue to call for the diversification of these reserves. According to a story in the Financial Times, China launched its highest profile criticism of the dominant role of the US dollar as a global reserve currency during the last day of the G8 meetings in Italy. "We should have a better system for reserve currency issuance and regulation, so that we can maintain relative stability of major reserve currencies exchange rates and promote a diversified and rational international reserve currency system," Chinese state Councilor Dai Bingguo was reported to say. Western leaders tried to play down the remarks, with Gordon Brown stating that he did not remember Mr. Dai making the remarks.

Separately, Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said Hong Kong might consider diversifying more of its $200 billion reserves away from the US dollar. I would expect China to keep the heat on the Obama administration in order to try and get them to reign in some of their 'quantitative easing' programs. The Chinese officials continue to be concerned about the future inflationary consequences of these programs. But at the same time, they have to be very careful about the diversification out of the dollar, as they still hold trillions of dollars and don't want to cause a sudden fall in their value. The big boss, Frank Trotter, constantly reminds us that China has a much longer term thought process, and has an extreme amount of patience. I would expect them to continue to slowly diversify their holdings, adding to the long slow decline of the US$.

With that I will move on to the currency roundup. Sorry to go so long this morning, but I felt like there was a lot of data to get through.

Currencies today 7/10/09: A$ .7760, kiwi .6263, C$ .8596, euro 1.3902, sterling 1.6198, Swiss .9172, rand 8.196, krone 6.5369, SEK 7.9021, forint 199.10, zloty 3.1440, koruna 18.708, yen 92.76, sing 1.4623, HKD 7.75, INR 48.97, China 6.8327, pesos 13.6408, BRL 2.009, dollar index 80.489, Oil $59.66, 10-year 3.337%, Silver $12.64, and Gold... $909.39

That's it for today... Everyone is limping into the office this morning, as we played a double-header in our kickball league last night. We ended up splitting the two games, but as my wife continues to tell me, kickball is a game for kids, not middle aged currency traders!! One of our team had to go to the hospital last night, as he injured his shoulder diving for a catch in the outfield; I hope Joe B's shoulder turns out to be ok!! St. Louis is getting ready for the All Star weekend, and I saw one of the blimps floating around last night. My son, Brendan and I are heading downtown to compete in the All Star Charity 5k run which begins at Busch Stadium. It will be fun to be downtown and around all of the All Star hoopla, even though we don't have a ticket to any of the events. Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday and a Wonderful Weekend!!

Chris Gaffney, CFA
Vice President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

The U.S. Treasury Moves The Goal Posts...

Chuck Butler — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:33:01 GMT

.........But First, A Word From Our Sponsor..........
The Ultra Resource Index CD: 6 foreign currencies, 1 unique opportunity

The Ultra Resource currencies (each is equally represented in the CD):

*Australian dollar
*Canadian dollar
*Hong Kong dollar
*New Zealand dollar
*Norwegian krone
*Singapore dollar

EverBank is a Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender.
......................................................

In This Issue..

* A 4-day rally gets stopped at the border...
* Home Prices fall at a -18.12% pace...
* Alice Rivlin gives her 2-cents...
* Kiwi bond maturities galore next month...

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

The U.S. Treasury Moves The Goal Posts...

Good day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! As tradition with the Pfennig would have it, here's my introduction to July... There I was... On a July morning... Looking for love... With the strength of a new day dawning, and... The beautiful sun...

Yes, for those "old rockers" from the 70's like me... That's Uriah Heep, at their best!

OK... So, welcome to July! The last day of June was quite the volatile one to say the least! There we were waiting for the S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index to print, and show that home prices were still down by quite a bit, when it did, it did, it printed at -18.12%... But! The media was all over that like a cheap suit, clamoring that the spiral down in Home Prices had come to and end! Which, may be true... But wouldn't you want to wait to see if next month's report confirms it? And... By the way... Since when does -18.12% fall in home prices beckon a rally? Yesterday, would be that answer!

So... The currency rally that was going on for a 4th day, was quickly wiped out, Ventures style... What? Don't know who the Ventures are? Boy, you really missed a lot of great instrumentals! Any way, the euro sunk like the Titanic from a level of 1.4130 to 1.40... The iceberg that caused this mess was simply the fact that traders, etc. believe the U.S. is on its way out of this mess... Of course, they must not be Pfennig readers, because... They would have read yesterday how I detailed the monthly numbers and showed how even with the spiral down in Home Prices ending, it would take until 2011 before the Home Prices got back to zero!

But NOOOOOOO!!!! They couldn't read it until late yesterday afternoon, because... Houston, we had a problem, with the Pfennig's delivery yesterday... See, how I've mellowed? I'm not even going to rant about this... Instead, I'll just remind everyone that whenever the Pfennig doesn't show up in your email box, you can most likely find it to read on the Pfennig's website, where you can view that "glamour shot" of me, and archives of the Pfennig! You can find it here: www.dailypfennig.com ---- Hope that helps!

OK... Well... After the thrill is gone, and the dust settled on all that yesterday, the euro is leading the other currencies higher once again... Here are a few things that have caused a sell-off of the dollar overnight once again...

Not that I'm a fan of his... In fact, I don't really care at all... But George Soros, normally has some interesting things to say, that end up being bang on... So here are a few one liners from a speech by George Soros yesterday... I believe this sounds very much like the things I tell you, have told you, and will continue to tell you...

SOROS SAYS SEES A "STOP-GO" ECONOMY GOING FORWARD
SOROS SAYS SELF-CORRECTING MARKETS IS A MISCONCEPTION
SOROS SAYS INFLATION FEARS WILL DRIVE UP RATES AS MARKETS REVIVE, CHOKING OFF GROWTH
SOROS SAYS CURRENT SUPER BUBBLE MADE POSSIBLE BY PAST INTERVENTION, EFFORT TO RESOLVE PREVIOUS BUBBLES
SOROS SAYS FORMER FED CHAIRMAN GREENSPAN REFUSED TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR STOPPING BUBBLES

And then there was Alice Rivlin, she of former Budget Director, and former Fed Reserve member, fame, had a few things to say to the House Budget Committee... Good stuff, but you have to wonder if anyone was paying attention! Here's Alice!

"The long term budget outlook: impending catastrophe"

"No one needs to remind this Committee that the outlook for the federal budget is worrisome indeed, scary. Long before the financial crisis and the current deep recession, this Committee was anxiously pointing out that current federal spending and revenue policies are on a risky, unsustainable course. Promises made under the major entitlement programs (especially Medicare and Medicaid) will increase federal spending rapidly over the next couple of decades, as the population ages and medical spending continues to rise faster than other spending. Federal expenditures are projected to grow substantially faster than revenues, opening widening deficit gaps that cannot not be financed."

Hmmm... Sounds like me too! Is this "sound like Chuck day?" HA!

OK... Enough of all that, I don't want anyone to get hurt, and I should have told everyone to put away the sharp objects before reading!

In other data yesterday, Consumer Confidence took a step backward, and fell in June to 49.3 from May's figure of 54.8... Maybe those that were surveyed has just read Alive Rivlin's talk to the House Budget Committee! Seriously though, this was a surprise, given the fat that the DOW gained 838 points in the 2nd QTR! At least, that's what the Wall Street Journal said!

Today, we get a truckload of data starting with Challenger Job Cuts, and the ADP Employment Change. Those are followed by the ISM Manufacturing Index, Construction Spending, Pending Home Sales and Vehicle Sales... Not a lot of "major" data prints, but still stuff to check the pulse of the economy.

I was talking to my good friend, and an economics professor at a prestigious University, yesterday, and she mentioned that "this piece of data is questionable as to the inputs"... I said to her... "What piece of data isn't questionable these days?"

OK... The "demand for high yield" was put on hold yesterday... But it will return, or at least I should say I think it will return... I don't know for sure to say "it will", so had better make the legal beagles happy... That's funny! To say that they would be "happy" with me... They cringe, and get very uncomfortable every day when they read the Pfennig! HA!

But you know me... I'm just trying to provide Market Commentary, and other things that I think are important, well, important to me that is!

Like... A long time reader sent me a note yesterday, and said, "hey Chuck, did you see the story in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Foreign Demand for Treasuries?" Well, I hadn't and went immediately to the WSJ, and there it was... Tucked away in a corner so that no one would see it, if they weren't looking for it... A story, by Min Zeng, titled, "Is Foreign Demand As Solid As It Looks?

These are the things that really TICK ME OFF folks, so stay with me on this... Basically, as we all know the U.S. Treasury Auctions have been getting "covered" easily recently... And foreign demand was listed as the reason... Which would have been the exact opposite of what I was saying about foreigners shying away from Treasuries...

Here's the skinny... But I'll let Min Zeng tell it, since he did the research and brought this to the public, even though it was tucked away so no one would notice!

"But in a little-noticed switch on June 1, the Treasury changed the way it accounts for indirect bids, putting more buyers under that umbrella and boosting the portion of recent Treasury sales that the market perceived were being bought by foreigners.

The new definitions are deep in the arcane world of Treasury auctions. The change involves buyers who place orders through primary dealers. Those had been counted as direct buyers, but as of June 1 they were classified as indirect buyers, making that group larger than before. Because investors view that group as being dominated by foreign buyers, they assumed foreign demand was higher."

>>>> OK, back to me... Ahhh, so that's what's going on... The Treasury "moved the goal posts on us"... As Sylvester would say... That's despicable! Why isn't someone in Washington D.C. shouting from the roof tops about this? Oh, that's right, they're all in cahoots!

This is HUGE folks... So... When the markets were thinking that foreign demand was increasing, it was actually, as I had said, shying away from Treasuries! Which, if the market participants are thinking that as long as foreigners are "buying into our deficit spending" then the dollar will be on terra firma, but instead are getting "duped" by the U.S. Treasury, you would think that someone would have some xplainin to do... Right Lucy?

And here's another thing that just ticked me off when I read it this morning... Recall, last week I told you about how someone in China was dissing the talk that China's stimulus was working, and that China would not be recovering, which sent the Aussie dollar to the woodshed until this news had passed? Well... Talk about egg on their face! Here's the skinny...

China's manufacturing expanded for a fourth month in June... The official Purchasing Managers' Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.2 in June from 53.1 in May... And just like here in the U.S. any reading above 50 is thought to show manufacturing is expanding... The manufacturing index in the U.S. is around 44, so... We DO have the tale of two economies...

In one corner, we have the Chinese who have spent about $585 Billion worth of renminbi in stimulus, and are seeing the results... Whereas in the other corner we have the U.S. who have spent... More money than you can shake a stick at, and are not seeing green shoots like they "think they are", instead they see dandelions, and weeds!

And the currencies of Australia and New Zealand have responded positively to this news from China...

And since I'm talking about China, might as well check on the other members of the BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India and China) Brazil's real just posted its best quarterly performance on record, and India was Asia's 3rd best performing currency, and if you throw out the two currencies above India that are illiquid, South Korea, and Indonesia, India was the best performing currency in Asia in the second QTR...

And the people over at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) believe that the rupee won't stop here... RBS issued a research report calling for a record 11% gain by the rupee in the 3rd QTR... I bet this news is music to the ears of my colleague on the "other" newsletter that I write... The Currency Capitalist... (to find out more: https://www.web-purchases.com/CUC/WCUCJ900/landing) My colleague, Ashish Advani, at the Sovereign Society, has been saying the rupee would be a strong performer for months now!

Here's something you might want to be aware of, regarding the New Zealand dollar / kiwi... About $4.5 Billion in kiwi Uridashi and euro kiwi bonds denominated in kiwi will expire next month... I'm told that this is more than 4 times the size of a usual monthly expiration of bonds. This could very well be the hoola hoop the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is looking for, given their wish that kiwi would weaken...

Royal Bank of Canada's Currency guru, Sue Trinh, says that kiwi weakness could be beneficial to Aussie dollars, as the Japanese are leaning toward Aussie over kiwi these days...

Sounds about right to me!

And then there was this... OK, you all saw that Bernie Madoff was given 150 years in prison... Did you see that his wife, Ruth, reached an agreement with the authorities to return all of her wealth except $2.5 million that she got to keep? The thing that I still don't get is how there aren't more people going down with the ship on this one... I've been in the back office of brokerage firms, ran a margin dept, etc. and know this wasn't just Bernie and his accountant... There was a lot of wool pulled over many eyes... And this will be the next step in the investigation by the U.S. officials... To see, who else knew what... If a whole stable full of people aren't found to have known, then I'll be surprised...

Currencies today 7/1/09: A$ .8045, kiwi .6410, C$ .8640, euro 1.4050, sterling 1.6430, Swiss .9220, rand 7.7675, krone 6.39, SEK 7.6337, forint 192.50, zloty 3.1390, koruna 18.3315, yen 96.90, sing 1.4475, HKD 7.75, INR 47.90, China 6.8330, pesos 13.18, BRL 1.9515, dollar index 80.11, Oil $71.27, 10-year 3.54%, Silver $13.67, and Gold... $931.20

That's it for today... So sorry about the tardiness of the Pfennig yesterday, but I can't do anything about it when we have technical difficulties... You know that I get up before the milkman, and the paper man, to get here to write it... It wasn't like I was dilly-dallying around and didn't get it done until 5 in the evening! HA! I see that my little buddy, Alex, got a 2nd and 3rd in backstroke and freestyle respectively at his latest swim meet. Really long time readers might recall when Alex's older brother, Andrew was a highly decorated swimmer, and I would write about his swimming records... And their sister Dawn, also was a medal winner as a young girl! So... It's now up to granddaughter, Delaney Grace to carry on the swimming tradition! HA! Cards lose again... UGH! OK... Time to try to get this out the door, hopefully it will go without a hitch... But whether it does or doesn't it won't stop me from having a Wonderful Wednesday... How about you?

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837

A Week Dominated By Data...

Chuck Butler — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:32:45 GMT

.........But First, A Word From Our Sponsor..........
The Ultra Resource Index CD: 6 foreign currencies, 1 unique opportunity

The Ultra Resource currencies (each is equally represented in the CD):

*Australian dollar
*Canadian dollar
*Hong Kong dollar
*New Zealand dollar
*Norwegian krone
*Singapore dollar

EverBank is a Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender.
......................................................

In This Issue..

* Both sides of the ship...
* Currencies remain well bid...
* ECB and Riksbank meet this week...
* Baiting the hook for more stimulus?

And Now... Today's Pfennig!

A Week Dominated By Data...

Good day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! The Heat Wave finally broke Saturday night, and we had just one of the most beautiful days yesterday that I have ever seen! Which was good, because we had a backyard full of first kids, and then family to celebrate Alex's 14th birthday!

Well... We have a week ahead of us that will be dominated by the U.S. data cupboard. And this week, we'll get the June Jobs Jamboree (JJJ) on Thursday instead of Friday. Saturday is the 4th of July, and I guess the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) isn't working on Friday! HA! No, they do this every now and then when the markets will be quite thin on a Friday before a Holiday weekend. And this week qualifies BIG TIME! It will be the 4th of July! And maybe, just maybe because you never know, someone in Washington D.C. will realize that the it's supposed to be about WE THE PEOPLE, not we the politicians...

Friday, I left you with the currencies moving higher on yield demand, I held by breath this morning when I turned on the currency screens, as I was concerned that another "demand" was going to be the headline. Because that's how it's been lately, eh? One day this "demand" the next day some other "demand"... But, no such new trade direction today. WHEW! I totally dislike getting whipsawed around like that, when we all know, and the traders all know, and the Hedge Fund managers all know, that in our collective heart of hearts, that in the end, the dollar will be much weaker... It's just all this stuff that goes on between now and when the end of the trend takes place.

For instance, one of the headline stories on the Bloomie this morning is that the "Best Currency Forecaster says the Dollar to Rise Most Since 1981 by year end"... WOW! Now that's an interesting forecast... But, it's just that... The "forecaster", believes that the U.S. recession will have come to an end in the U.S. this year, and U.S. growth will outpace everyone else, making the dollar the King once again... Now... I talk about going out on limbs all the time with my opinion / look ahead on things, and this is "forecast" qualifies as going out on a limb!

It's important that I tell you about these things, because... This is market commentary, and I wouldn't be doing it right, if I only told you stories on one side the ship... Right? Of course that's right! Of course, you know me, I just don't see it happening that way, and the one thing I think of when I read something like that is: rose colored glasses...

And... Speaking of the sides of the ship... Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), the world's 2nd biggest currency trader, has just revised THEIR CURRENCY FORECAST for year end, believing the dollar will be lower... So there you go... Two stories from both sides of the ship!

Playing well with the "forecast for a strong dollar" is a story overnight that China has once again backed off their statements calling for a replacement to the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Of course, that's what the "markets read"... I don't read it that way... Let's see what you think... "China ruled out "sudden changes" to its foreign-reserves policy"... I think it's strictly China being China, aloof, cunning, and other things... Of COURSE they don't want any "SUDDEN CHANGES", they haven't had enough time to rid themselves of hundreds of billion of dollar reserves!

Even with those two stories this morning, the dollar remains on the down side against the currencies, with the euro remaining above 1.40 through Friday, overnight Sunday, and so far this morning... The euro did get a boost this morning from a report on economic confidence, as the data moved upward to an index number of 73.3, VS the 71 that was forecast...

The European Central Bank (ECB) will meet this Thursday, and I do NOT expect them to make any moves with rates, leaving their internal rate at 1%. The most important thing will be if ECB President Trichet, has something to say that could me the markets after the rate announcement.

Sweden's Central Bank, the Riksbank, also meets on Thursday this week. (there's a ton of stuff going on Thursday, eh?) With internal rates at just .50%, I guess they could cut, but what would be the point?

The Swiss franc is getting caught in the middle of a war between the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and traders... The SNB has been in the markets quite a few times recently intervening (selling francs) to keep the currency from getting too strong. And traders see that as a great opportunity to test the SNB's intestinal fortitude... I've always loved watching these things develop... If the traders "really" want to test the SNB, they'll win, as the SNB doesn't have the war chest that, say a Japan has... Unless they want to get into the "printing" business....

Besides data, and Central Bank meetings this week, it's also the end of the quarter tomorrow... Which means the books get closed as some businesses have their year end, on June 30th. This also means that 2nd QTR earnings isn't that far off, and I think these reports will be quite interesting, maybe taking some of the shine off the thoughts that the recession ended already!

The High Yielders have remained strong since Friday of last week, with Aussie, kiwi, Brazil, all leading the way. And there was no "new News" from the BRIC's over the weekend... For those of you new to class, the BRIC's are Brazil, Russia, India and China, all emerging markets that are clamoring for change and a great influence in the world's financial matters... And why not? They have more money in reserves than you can shake a stick at, and... The have the a very large portion of the world's population!

So, let's go to the data cupboard and see what else will be on the docket this week data wise...

Today we have a couple of 3rd tier reports, so nothing to write home about, but tomorrow... We'll see the April S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index... I truly expect this data to show that Home Prices continue their downward spiral... We'll also see The Chicago Purchasing Manager report (manufacturing), and Consumer Confidence...

When we turn the calendar page to July on Wednesday, we'll be met by the ADP Employment report, and the ISM Manufacturing Index. There's also Construction Spending, Pending Home Sales, and Total Vehicle Sales. Then on Thursday, which will be the "Mother of all Economic Data and Central Bank meeting days"... The June Jobs Jamboree, along with the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims... Which is going to look really stupid for the Jobs Jamboree... You see, the monthly report from the BLS is expected to print at -350K... Whereas the "WEEKLY" Initial Jobless Claims will print at over 600K for the week! I know, I know, it doesn't add up, folks... Which is one of the things I complain about, and point out, and make fun of all the time... The BLS... Need I say more?

And then there was this... Did you know... That U.S. Treasuries posted their largest 1st half losses in 30 years? Well, that's the facts Jack! Now... Quite a few "bond dealers" believe that the worst is over... OVER? Nothing's over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (ok that's a line from Animal House, please I know it's incorrect, just funny!)

Seriously though... I don't see how these "bond dealers" can say something like that, as they know all too well that the supply of Treasuries that will be issued this year will be enough to send yields higher... How can they get away with saying something like that? Oh! I know! They won't be technically wrong, if Treasuries continue to lose value, as long as they don't lose as much as they did in the 1st half of this year! Shame, shame, shame...

OH, and remember last week, when I told you about the President saying "not yet" instead of a resounding "no" when asked about another Stimulus? Well... The White House Senior Advisor, David Axelrod, said this weekend that the President is ready to discuss additional measures... And the President also casually mentioned that "we have not broken the back of the recession"... Is that like baiting the hook? I think so folks...

Now... On to the Big Finish for this Marvelous Monday!

Currencies today 6/29/09: A$ .8065, kiwi .6490, C$ .8685, euro 1.4065, sterling 1.6570, Swiss .9215, rand 7.8405, krone 6.4470, SEK 7.7390, forint 196.30, zloty 3.1920, koruna 18.4855, yen 95.30, sing 1.4540, HKD 7.75, INR 48.10, China 6.8335, pesos 13.1920, BRL 1.9355, dollar index 79.94, Oil $69.69, 10-year 3.50%, Silver $14.12, and Gold... $941.95

That's it for today... As I said above, yesterday was my little buddy Alex's birthday. We went to breakfast, as we always do... Yesterday was also my darling daughter Dawn and husband Jerry's 6th wedding anniversary. I felt bad after sending out Friday's Pfennig that I had not paid respect to Farrah Fawcett, who had passed away after losing her battle with cancer on Thursday. I wonder how many T-shirts were bought and worn back in the 70's with Farrah on the T-shirt... They were everywhere! And this weekend, the info-commercial guy, Billy Mays, passed away... OK... Our little Christine returns to work today, after a brief vacation... Yay for us! And a good show for the U.S. National Soccer Team yesterday, losing the Championship game 3-2, after leading 2-0 at halftime! Gotta go... It's a Monday, so we might as well make it Marvelous, eh?

Chuck Butler
President
EverBank World Markets
1-800-926-4922
1-314-647-3837