........Merry Go Round.............
New years optimism, european headline boredom and confluxing rate environments are driving economic markets worldwide. Baltic dry 924 on January 5, off a cliff since mid Dec and historically low but flat YoY. This index was north of 10,000 in 2008 and reflects Greeks hiding money, low dry rates because of increased ship numbers and economic malaise worldwide. I would expect tanker rates to rise in light of Keystone rejection, however....US rail traffic {Buffet favorite} looks to be falling of late with 274,863 cars out and 31 billion ton/miles of freight, down about 3% YoY.....Copper 8,155 USD a tonne in London, noon spot.... up about 9% in the last couple of weeks, JJC reflecting this pricing and moving from 45 to 49 in the period.....read China demand..need proof...Chinese copper demand up 47% YoY...more?.. latest numbers show Chinese Q4 GDP up 9% and industrial production up 12.8% in 2011....No recession there....Stateside, todays unemployment number of 8.5% showed a decrease in first claims of 50,000 to around 350,000 filling out forms they have never seen before....celebration at the Obama palace because of the headline flash....the smaller print in the report at the BLS shows 7,826,655 were sent benefits this week, up over 500,000 from the week before....Good luck with that debt thing, Black Prince.....As a matter of interest, unemployment in Greece is 20% with GDP contracting over 12% since 2009...British GDP is flatlining...Australia comes in at 5.5% unemployment cause they take shit out of the ground and send it to China down there......Oil at 100 USD a can in Texas this morning...Brent crude is still at a premium and STO is the play.....Gold 1650 USD a troy oz....Gold remains strong up 10% in 2011 and ^ 4% since the ball dropped in Times Square...note the 200 day MA is unwaveringly up against the euro so the trade should be viewed relative to currency ...need more ?..inside sources reflect mainland China imported almost 102.8 metric tons of Gold in November, valued at about $5.4 billion USD...I'm long....Corn stockpiles worldwide are extemely low...Corn sells in Chicago for about 6 USD a bushel....ethanol out, low supply in.....let's see...Kodak is bankrupt...Apple is worth 400 billion USD on the open market.........Housing remains flat stateside and level in China.....tightening working there but loosening not working here....Government data from both countries showing a slight rise in chinese housing inventory with prices off very slightly at .3%.....Stateside, the Feds figure over 7 trillion in home equity has been wiped out and one in five are still "underwater"....spin it any way you like...What am I lookin at?...German short term debt went negative last week...OK, People are willing to take a NEGATIVE return for the safety of a German bond over there....motherfucker, I'm going back to working on my 9 window, 3 dimensional investment matrix...I like US equities, precious metals, copper...Dividend returns will be key again this year with Bloomberg estimating a 12% increase in payouts in 2012...I hold GLTR, GLD, MSTR, TRN, NICE, EMR.....I like JJC and STO..
