A Record Iron Ore Shipment As Prices and the Australian Dollar Plunge

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on June 11, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Port Hedland Port Authority along the northern coast of Western Australia reported on June 10th surprising news on an iron ore shipment: {snip} The Port does not report the value … Read more

A Crescendo Looms for the Australian Dollar Even As Traders Cast About for New Forex Leader

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on June 6, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) On Monday night (June 4th, Tuesday morning in Australia), the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to leave its cash rate steady at 2.75%. The statement contained no new news and … Read more

Plunging Iron Ore Underlines Coming Monetary Policy from the Reserve Bank of Australia

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on June 2, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} …Iron prices have plunged almost as severely as they did last August as steel rebar prices have fallen. From Reuters on May 31st: {snip} These price declines would seem to … Read more

Reserve Bank of Australia Meeting Minutes Suggest Rate Cuts Are About The Exchange Rate

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 21, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} In Monday’s minutes (Tuesday Australia time) of the May 7th policy meeting, the RBA provided no direct smoking gun to explain what I called at the time a mystifying rate … Read more

Baidu Breakout Redux: Watch the Volume

Baidu (BIDU) is a Chinese internet company specializing in search, and it has a huge fan base. Unfortunately, the stock peaked in July, 2011 and has been on a roller coaster ride downward ever since. The long-term, weekly chart below shows how the 50-week moving average has defined the overall downtrend. The longer-term 200-week moving … Read more