The pattern has been that when the dollar rose, gold and silver fell. But yesterday with the dollar up on euro worries, gold and silver climbed too. Gold was up $11.60 an ounce and silver gained $1.11 an ounce
The most important central banks among the developed economies are set to announce interest rate and monetary policy decisions in the forty-eight hours after the Fed speaks. If you’ve been hungry for central bank news, I think you’re about to get your fill.
The U.S. dollar is in a holding pattern so far this morning as the currency markets wait for decisions from Australia and Japan. But after tomorrow I expect the dollar’s decline to resume. On Friday, October 1, the U.S. dollar hit a six month low and I don’t think we’re done yet.
The Irish crisis deepens—at least as judged by spreads on Irish government bonds. Yields on Irish government bonds hit records on Tuesday, September 28.The immediate cause of the jump in Irish yields was an announcement that on Thursday the government will unveil a plan to pump more money, a projected $6.7 billion, into Anglo Irish Bank
Bloomberg is reporting this morning that European central banks have bought Irish government bonds in an effort to prevent bond prices from sliding further and setting off panic selling in the debt of Ireland and other peripheral euro economies such as Greece and Portugal
Investors want to see a combination of taxes and spending that reduces Spain’s budget deficit, the Euro Zone’s third largest. But they’re skeptical that Prime Minister Zapatero can deliver: Since July 27, the spread between the benchmark 10-year German bund and the Spanish 10-year bond has widened by 0.36 percentage points
Four months after a $140 billion bailout “solved” the Greek crisis the European Union still doesn’t trust Greek accounting. A team from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics watchdog, is headed to Greece to put together it calls a “solid estimate” of total Greek debt. Better late than never, I guess.
Today the euro is down against the yen, European stocks are in retreat and bonds for economies on the euro periphery are down against the German 10-year bond benchmark. Sound familiar?
