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

Take A Pause From Your Deflation Fears and Consider Some Counter-Evidence

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 25, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Swiss franc (FXF) has started another weakening phase, putting an exclamation point on the currency market’s refusal to go along with the shrill, recent headlines claiming another deflation cycle has … Read more

Don’t Overplay the Recovery In Iron Ore Prices

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 7, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) Back in September, one of the big stories was the plunge in iron ore prices to three-year lows around $87/ton. With prices down over 50% from the record high of $191/ton … Read more

The Australian Dollar Breaks Out As It Regains Correlation With The S&P 500

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 11, 2013. Click here to read the entire piece.) On Thursday, January 10th, China reported export growth much larger than forecasters expected. {snip} This surge helped push the Australian dollar (FXA) far enough to finally break a long-standing downtrend against … Read more