ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 8, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) Against my previous expectations, the Australian dollar (FXA) continues to shrink. First the Chinese government panicked with successive rate cuts and next direct manipulation in its stock markets. Now it seems … Read more
China: The five-year plan | NPR Marketplace Five years ago, Marketplace visited China for a series of special reports. During our special two-week broadcast, we covered a wide range of stories — many involving China's rapid economic growth. Some of the topics we looked at include the hidden price of China's pace, its move toward … Read more
China Bears Have It Wrong: Jim Rogers – CNBC Commodity bull Jim Rogers says hedge fund managers such as Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates and Hugh Hendry of Eclectica, who have been shorting Chinese related stocks and credits, have got it wrong. "Those guys have been dead wrong for two years. Chanos said two years … Read more
China’s sugar rush may be ending | James Saft China is an economy addicted to investment, a sort of fun house mirror of the U.S.’s addiction to consumption, with an astounding 93 percent of GDP growth in 2009 attributable to investment. That’s a strategy that worked well for years, but China’s response to the global … Read more
Originally posted on “Inflation Watch“… Nightly Business Report produced a short video segment describing China’s inflation woes (transcript included) called “China’s Inflation Battle.” The commentator identifies China’s RMB¥ 4 trillion stimulus program (around $585B USD at the time) as the original source of the inflation and takes us to Pengshui, 1000 miles from Beijing, to … Read more
China Noses Ahead as Top Goods Producer – CNBC/Financial Times China has become the world’s top manufacturing country by output, returning the country to the position it occupied in the early 19th century and ending the U.S.’s 110-year run as the largest goods producer. (tags: China economy manufacturing)
China’s Shanghai Composite Index plunged during most of 2008, bottoming at the end of October after a 68% loss. You could be excused for being unaware of the slow-moving crash at the time given all the hype about the summer Olympics in Beijing and the building excitement about investing in China as an “escape” from … Read more
The World Steel Association (worldsteel) forecasts for 2010 confirm my earlier view that steel demand (and production) most likely bottomed this year and some kind of recovery is underway. Worldsteel’s forecasts indicate that demand for steel in 2010 will return to 2008 levels after contracting in 2009 by 8.6%: “The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is … Read more
This past earnings season for solar companies was a general disappointment if measured by stock performance after the earnings releases although the season started with a bang when Sunpower (SPWRA) issued surprise guidance and generated a one-day, 29% pop in price. I wanted to review the conference calls of all the major, publicly traded solar … Read more
First Solar (FSLR) wasted no time in securing a deal from China. One day after announcing the arrival of senior Chinese government leaders from the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, FSLR announced that it had secured a major contract in Inner Mongolia. This 2 gigawatt desert solar power plant is exactly … Read more