A Mysterious Omission By the Reserve Bank of Australia Lifts the Australian Dollar

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 4, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) issued its monetary policy decision for August. The RBA left rates unchanged just as the market expected. The rest of the statement was boilerplate … Read more

The Australian Dollar Stabilizes In the Wake of A Copy and Paste Monetary Decision

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on July 7, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left its cash rate at 2.0%, right in-line with market expectations as expressed through the Australian Stock Exchange’s RBA rate tracker. In making its policy … Read more

The RBA Takes Out Insurance on Household Demand With A Well-Telegraphed Rate Cut

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 5, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) The only thing the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) missed in its amazingly accurate preview of the May decision on monetary policy from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) was that the … Read more

A Confident Story Cuts Through the RBA’s Monetary Conundrum And Drives the Australian Dollar Lower

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on May 1, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) While the U.S. dollar (UUP) was experiencing fresh bout of weakness, the Australian dollar (FXA) was surprisingly even weaker. Although I explained in an earlier piece that the Australian dollar was … Read more

Stern Warnings to Financial Markets

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 14, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} Guy Debelle, an Assistant Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), delivered a must read speech on pricing and volatility in financial markets. He was about as subtle as … Read more

Cliffs Natural Resources CEO Yearns for Iron Ore Collusion, uh, Cooperation

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 12, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) When I last wrote about the colorful CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), Lourenco Goncalves, he was lambasting the Australians for manipulating their currency as a last desperate measure to save … Read more

It Had to Happen – An Outright Call for Iron Ore Collusion

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 26, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} The response was swift. The The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a statement indicating it will investigate the context and nature of comments made by Andrew Forrest, founder … Read more

More Rate Cut Pressure As Australian Dollar’s Multi-Year Weakness Fails to Curb Trade Deficit

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on April 2, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) A drop in the Australian dollar (FXA) toward a fresh six-year low has not stopped Australia’s trade balance from worsening. {snip} Source: The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Source for currency … Read more

Surprising Divergences Tugging At the Australian Dollar

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 31, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) Over the weekend another wave of rumors about plans for economic stimulus in China made the rounds. These rumors were credited for helping to drive China’s Shanghai index toward a 7-year … Read more

Gold Is Unloved But Still Not Cheap

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on March 8, 2014. Click here to read the entire piece.) Friday’s U.S. employment report delivered strong results yet again. It helped increase expectations of a Fed rate hike by June as iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) and SPDR Gold Shares … Read more