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Dear CIGAs,
Good night to my extended family.
Her name is Pink. She is a pig, but don’t tell anyone.
She thinks she is a Hot Dog. The other Hot Dogs agree, especially her Hot Dog mother.
![clip_image001[1]](http://jsmineset.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/clip_image00113.jpg "clip_image001[1]")
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Now they have lost their minds. They are going to bail themselves out with TARP funds.
Who ever came up with that one should be sent to the front lines in Afghanistan, if anyone could find the front lines.
White House Aims to Cut Deficit With TARP Cash
NOVEMBER 12, 2009
By DEBORAH SOLOMON and JONATHAN WEISMAN
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, under pressure to show it is serious about tackling the budget deficit, is seizing on an unusual target to showcase fiscal responsibility: the $700 billion financial rescue.
The administration wants to keep some of the unspent funds available for emergencies, but is considering setting aside a chunk for debt reduction, according to people familiar with the matter. It is also expected to lower the projected long-term cost of the program — the amount it expects to lose — to as little as $200 billion from $341 billion estimated in August.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
How will Karzai do that? He would have to fire himself and his #1 son.
U.S. Seeking a Lever in Kabul
By HELENE COOPER
Published: November 11, 2009
WASHINGTON — When President Obama delivered a rare and public calllast week for President Hamid Karzai to crack down on corruption in Afghanistan, there was one glaring omission from his remarks — an “or else.”
Mr. Obama’s exclusion of the obvious threat — that he will pull American troops out of Afghanistan if Mr. Karzai does not comply — reflects a stark conundrum: How much leverage does the United States really have over the Afghan leader?
“You know that scene in the movie ‘Blazing Saddles,’ when Cleavon Little holds the gun to his own head and threatens to shoot himself?” asked Ronald E. Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan.
“The argument that we could pull out of Afghanistan if Karzai doesn’t do what we say is stupid. We couldn’t get the Pakistanis to fight if we leave Afghanistan; we couldn’t accomplish what we’ve set out to do. And Karzai knows that.”
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You have to love how legislation today is named exactly what it is NOT.
"The derivatives Markets Transparency Accountability Act of 2009"
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Do not phone, write, fax, or email anything you would not want to see in a headline in the New York Times. Be advised.
Every phone call, email and internet click stored by ’state spying’ databases
Every phone call, text message, email and website visit will be stored for a year for monitoring by the state.
By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM GMT 09 Nov 2009
All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they are contacting, when, where and which websites they are visiting.
Despite widespread opposition over Britain’s growing surveillance society, 653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors.
They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to access the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.
Ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a massive Government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.
However the Government announced yesterday it was pressing ahead with privately-held "Big Brother" databases which opposition leaders said amount to "state-spying" and a form of "covert surveillance" on the public.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Relax. Gold is going to $1224, $1278, $1650 and then on to Alf’s numbers.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Position limits in a global market borders on a joke.
All it will do is drive specs to others international exchange markets and forms.
Money is so big now that oil specs can lease and fill tankers if they wish.
This has PR value, but no real lasting impact on prices other than hurting local exchange volume and increasing international exchange volume. It could actually backfire by sending big money to little exchanges.
Leave it to governments to screw it up.
Exclusive: Chilton sees decision in December on position limits
Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:19pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is moving toward adopting a proposal in early December to rein in excessive speculation in energy markets by setting hard limits on positions investor entities can hold in a contract.
Bart Chilton, one of five CFTC commissioners, said until a draft is completed it will be difficult to determine where the commission stands as an entity, but there is a broad understanding "that there are issues that need to be addressed and that doing nothing is not an option."
"I think there will be" position limits, Chilton told Reuters in an interview.
"I don’t want to prejudge where we’ll be specifically but if I had to guess where we’ll come out ultimately I believe that there will be hard position limits … for energy commodities and for other physical commodities" such as metals, he said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You think the Fed is getting the message of more QE and will stop all the silly talk they were doing about draining?
You can bet the last Fed statement was in light of this bill. Such bills are no surprise to anyone in DC circles as the content is well known before it is publicly discussed.
Goodbye dollar. Alf and Armstrong are right.
Fed Faces Biggest Blow to Authority in Dodd Proposal (Update1)
By Scott Lanman and Craig Torres
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve faces the biggest blows to its authority and independence in five decades under legislation championed by its lead overseer in the U.S. Senate.
The financial-regulation overhaul proposed yesterday by Senator Christopher Dodd would strip the Fed of its role as a bank supervisor and give Congress a greater voice in naming the officials who set interest rates. The measure opens the door to interference from politicians who might disagree with any move by the Fed to raise rates from record lows, former central bank officials said.
“If you were worried that the Fed will be pressured to remove its accommodation while the unemployment rate is still very high, you’ve got to look for leverage,” Vincent Reinhart, a former director of the Fed’s Monetary Affairs Division, said in an interview. Dodd is aiming for “some political reach into all the voters” on the Fed’s Open Market Committee, which decides the benchmark U.S. interest rate, added Reinhart, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
U.S. stocks, bonds and the dollar would collapse if investors perceive Congress violating the independence of the policy-setting panel, former Fed Governor Laurence Meyer, now vice chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, said last month.
Dodd’s measure would also curb the Fed’s ability to make emergency loans to individual companies. The Fed’s response to the financial crisis prompted increased scrutiny of the central bank, especially after it used its emergency powers to bail out Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This is not for Devali. Go India gold investors!
India’s gold import rises 45 pc to 48 tonnes in October
11 Nov 2009, 2132 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: India’s gold imports surged by over 45 per cent in October at 48 tonnes on the back of rising demand, the country’s largest state-run gold importing firm MMTC said today.
India, the world’s largest gold consumer, had imported 33 tonnes in the corresponding period last year, it said.
"Gold imports rose due to a sharp rise in jewellery demand and pick up in investment," MMTC Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Batra told reporters here.
Consequently, MMTC purchased 15.13 tonnes from the global market last month as against 10.42 tonnes in the same period in 2008-09, he said.
However, gold imports till October this fiscal remained lower at 510 tonnes, compared with 635 tonnes in the year-ago period, he noted.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
All this could have been avoided, but then who am I to tell Barrick’s then president anything about the price of gold?
Oh yes, it has deeply hurt them if you have a brain to understand.
Want to buy the world’s cheapest and in my opinion best new nickel project cheap? Call them. Tell them Jim sent you.
Barrick shuts hedge book as world gold supply runs out
Global gold production is in terminal decline despite record prices and Herculean efforts by mining companies to discover fresh sources of ore in remote spots, according to the world’s top producer Barrick Gold.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Published: 7:20PM GMT 11 Nov 2009
Aaron Regent, president of the Canadian gold giant, said that global output has been falling by roughly 1m ounces a year since the start of the decade. Total mine supply has dropped by 10pc as ore quality erodes, implying that the roaring bull market of the last eight years may have further to run.
"There is a strong case to be made that we are already at ‘peak gold’," he told The Daily Telegraph at the RBC’s annual gold conference in London.
"Production peaked around 2000 and it has been in decline ever since, and we forecast that decline to continue. It is increasingly difficult to find ore," he said.
Ore grades have fallen from around 12 grams per tonne in 1950 to nearer 3 grams in the US, Canada, and Australia. South Africa’s output has halved since peaking in 1970.
The supply crunch has helped push gold to an all-time high, reaching $1,118 an ounce at one stage yesterday. The key driver over recent days has been the move by India’s central bank to soak up half of the gold being sold by the International Monetary Fund. It is the latest sign that the rising powers of Asia and the commodity bloc are growing wary of Western paper money and debt.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Truth has a clear ring to it. Please read the excerpt from the official report on commercial real estate in California.
So many of these losses sit on the books of banks and have not been written down.
After FASB sells out you only write up, never down!
California Controller: Overview of the Commercial Property Markets
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2009
Buried in the California Controller’s November analysis is a guest article: Overview of the Commercial Property and Capital Markets with Implications for the State of California by Dr. Randall Zisler. (ht picosec)
Here are some excerpts:
Whereas excessive and imprudent leverage fed the bubble, deleveraging not only popped the bubble, but, in the process, destroyed record amounts of equity and debt. Most deals financed with high leverage from 2005 to the present are under water. The equity is gone and the debt, if it trades at all, trades at a deep discount to face value. Most leveraged equity invested in real estate has evaporated since property prices, if marked to market, have fallen 30% to 50%.
The chart [right] shows overall U.S. property total returns, quarterly (at annual rates) and lagging four quarters. This appraisal-based, lagging index shows sharp negative returns exceeding the deterioration of the RTC (Resolution Trust Corp.)
period of the early 1990s. (See Chart 1.) Second quarter 2009 returns indicate the possibility that total returns, while still negative, may have hit a point of inflection. We expect that property values in many sectors, especially office, retail, and industrial, will likely deteriorate further in 2010 with improvement beginning sometime in 2011.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
I will never understand why people think that governments, not markets, make currency value in terms of a trend.
Markets rule!
Obama Dollar to ‘Devalue the Way to Prosperity’!
Posted by Dean Popplewell at 5:48 am EST, 11/11/2009
Contrarian long USD positions remain costly. Forget the Japanese housewife, it’s the Brown’s, Smiths, Jones etc who have been piling into a global carry trade, similar to Japans’ lost years, using the USD as a vehicle currency. It will end in tears. Is the Obama’s administration policy one of quiet, steady dollar devaluation? A weaker domestic currency gives way to cheaper exports and the potential for increased employment opportunities. With a 26-year high unemployment rate sitting at 10.2%, itching to go higher (real rate supposedly near 17%), is begging Obama to ‘devalue the way to prosperity’!
The US$ is weaker in the O/N trading session. Currently it is lower against 14 of the 16 most actively traded currencies in a ‘subdued’ trading range.
Fed voting member Janet Yellen and her dovish comments gave little support to her domestic currency yesterday. She stated the obvious when committing the Fed to a tighter monetary mandate ‘at some point’ in the future. She highlighted that US unemployment could stay elevated ‘for years to come’, and that the countries recovery will ‘be gradual and vulnerable’ to shocks. The Fed expects the commercial real estate sector to weigh down this recovery as their prospects are rather ‘worrisome’ to the committee. Despite the equity rally going some ways to rebuild household wealth, ‘strength, durability of expansion are in question’, as prospects for ‘consumer spending remain cloudy’. Not a strong endorsement to wear a train driver’s hat Buffett style.
The USD$ is currently lower against the EUR +0.35%, GBP +0.18%, CHF +0.35% and JPY +0.00%. The commodity currencies are stronger this morning, CAD +0.35% and AUD +0.22%. At 96c or 1.0417 expect the BOC to be drawing ‘their’ line in the sand. Governor Carney has insisted that they will use a combination of currency intervention, credit and quantitative easing options to influence the loonies’ value. The BOC believes that a strong currency is detrimental to economic growth. In the O/N session, the loonie has appreciated to its strongest level in 2-weeks vs. its southern trading partner on the back of the G20 maintaining their economic stimulus measures. Keeping the status quo is boosting speculators risk appetite for the higher yielding asset classes and commodity based currencies. Last week the Canadian economy managed to pare -43k jobs in Oct. (the market was expecting a gain of +10k) and push the unemployment rate up 2-ticks to an unexpected +8.6%. The data provides much stronger evidence that Canada has some ways to go to exit this recession, but, the data will make it easier for Governor Carney to follow through on his pledge to keep borrowing costs at record lows until June of next year to promote growth unless of course the inflation outlook changes materially. For now the loonie remains in a tight 3cent trading range with dealers continuing to play the support and resistance levels until fundamentally or technically told otherwise or commodity prices start to fall off a cliff!
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Lets crank out those loans so we can rescue the Too Big To Fail one more time.
I could use a billion. I think I will apply.
FDIC boss: Big banks still aren’t lending enough
Large banks aren’t ‘stepping up to the plate providing credit,’ Bair says
updated 5:09 p.m. MT, Tues., Nov . 10, 2009
NEW YORK – The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday she’s "very worried" that the nation’s biggest banks aren’t lending enough and warned the economy could take another turn for the worse without increased access to credit.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the FDIC’s upcoming quarterly report would show that "not many large institutions are doing a very good job of lending." Instead, she said, some are taking advantage of near-zero interest rates by borrowing dollars cheaply to buy higher-yielding assets like stocks or commodities — a move known as the "carry trade."
"I don’t see much money going out (from banks). I see a lot of carry trade," Bair told a banking conference in New York. "It used to be you take deposits and you lend out money. We’d like to see more of that."
Many banks have tightened lending standards following a wave of residential and commercial property defaults. Others say they want to lend but see little demand as consumers and businesses seek to pay off debt, not take on more.
The lack of lending by large banks is dangerous at a time when many small and midsize banks are teetering on the brink amid the economic downturn, Bair said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
I thought you might like to read the New York Stock Exchange Midday Report to listed companies.
Please pay attention to the last point below.
Apparently management has not yet realized that equity strength is a direct result of the dollar’s poor action as well as a few trillion in liquidity injections.
NYSE MAC DESK MID-DAY MARKET UPDATE:
DOW 10,275 (+27 points), S&P500 1096 (+3 points), Crude $78.85/barrel (-$0.20)
MARKET DRIVERS: {3 Drivers today: 1) “Fed-speak”. 2) New lows for the dollar 3) Strong Chinese economic numbers…}
Several Fed officials yesterday, (including Dallas Fed President Fisher last night), talked about either the lack of inflation or implied that monetary policy will remain easy for some time. Predictably, the Dollar Index is hitting new lows, commodities and commodity stocks are again up.
These days, we watch Chinese Industrial Production as closely as U.S. Industrial Production…the Chinese October IP was up 16.1% (a 19-month high). Japanese Machine Orders were also up over 10 percent..
UPS CEO, Scott Davis, told Reuters that volumes will turn positive next year as the economy improves, and that he will increase shipping prices as well. Fedex also announced that they would increase prices earlier.
Gold has jumped to another record high. (What else is new…)
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
All governments at all levels speak their case.
Stimulus job boost in state exaggerated, review finds
Errors, incomplete data, estimated positions go into federal report
While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.
While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.
The Globe’s finding is based on the federal government’s just-released accounts of stimulus spending at the end of October. It lists the nearly $4 billion in stimulus awards made to an array of Massachusetts government agencies, universities, hospitals, private businesses, and nonprofit organizations, and notes how many jobs each created or saved.
But in interviews with recipients, the Globe found that several openly acknowledged creating far fewer jobs than they have been credited for.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Now here is a confidence building action.
Geithner Affirms Strong Dollar Policy
NOVEMBER 11, 2009, 12:39 P.M. ET
BY TAKASHI NAKAMICHI
TOKYO — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that maintaining a strong dollar is "very important" for the country’s economy, sticking to his mantra on foreign-exchange policy as the U.S. currency continues its broad downtrend.
"I believe deeply that it’s very important for the U.S. and the economic health of the U.S. that we maintain a strong dollar," he said at a roundtable discussion with Japanese reporters. "We bear special responsibility for trying to make sure that we are implementing policy in the U.S. that will sustain confidence not just among American investors and .. savers but investors around …
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Pakistan today. Plan A was a real bomb.
Now on to plan B. We then shoot Plan B up the flag pole to see if it gets saluted.
US denies Pakistan nuclear report
The US government has rejected a report that Washington has a team ready to secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal due to fears that the country is unstable.
Ian Kelly, a state department spokesman, dismissed the report by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker which said that the US has a special force in place that would move to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weaponry in the event of a crisis.
"The US has no intention of seizing Pakistani nuclear weapons or material – we see Pakistan as a key ally in our common effort to fight violent extremists and to foster regional stability," Kelly said.
He said the US was "working very closely with Pakistan on a number of important initiatives regarding regional security".
"We do provide them with assistance, as you know," he said, but added: "We have confidence in the ability of the Pakistani government to provide adequate security for their nuclear programmes and materials."
Blast kills 20 in NW Pakistan
Attack is third in days in area where army is taking on Taliban
By Pamela Constable and Haq Nawaz Khan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN– A suicide bomber rammed his car into a donkey cart in the northwest town of Charsadda on Tuesday, killing more than 20 people and wounding 45, officials said. It was the third suicide bombing since Saturday in the volatile border region, where army troops have battled Taliban forces for a month.
The three blasts in North-West Frontier Province have killed at least 40 people in four days, including a mayor who once backed the Taliban but later led a militia against it. He died Sunday when a suicide bomber set off a blast in a livestock market, where people were buying goats to sacrifice for the upcoming Eid holiday.
The latest bombings, all carried out against nonmilitary targets, highlight the human cost of Pakistan’s decision to launch a major army offensive against one of the Taliban’s main tribal strongholds. The violence increasingly has spilled into heavily populated areas nearby.
Army officials say the operation in the South Waziristan tribal area is going well and has strong support among the Pakistani public. But analysts said the militants’ aggressive moves beyond tribal borders — especially against local officials who defy them — is opening a deadly new front in a war that could still lose crucial public support.
Moreover, regional leaders and analysts said they are worried that the central government, by failing to follow up a series of army operations with rehabilitation aid and economic development, is opening the door for Taliban forces to return and regain influence over an impoverished, long-neglected tribal populace that has little loyalty to the state.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Chavez was quoted as saying, "Where did they come from?"
Venezuela’s Chavez Denies He Called Troops to War, Caracol Says
By Helen Murphy
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last night denied he had called for war with Colombia and said his comments to make preparations were defensive, Caracol Radio reported.
Chavez criticized Colombia’s decision to allow the U.S. to use seven military and air bases inside the Andean nation and said his comments on Nov. 8 were aimed at preparing his armed forces to defend the nation from attacks from the seven bases, Caracol cited Chavez as saying yesterday in Caracas.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Tanzania just grows and grows. It is amazing what great leadership will do for you.
Vodacom Business takes aim at corporate Tanzania
11 November, 2009
Vodacom Business has established a new unit in Vodacom Tanzania
According to Vodacom Business the new unit will pave the way for Vodacom Tanzania to provide new technologies and value-add solutions to meet the mobile and fixed voice-, video- and data requirements of Tanzanian businesses.
Wally Beelders, chief officer of Vodacom Business Africa, says the establishment of this business unit is a result of the need to increase the focus and align the strategic fit of Vodacom Tanzania with the directional growth of Corporate Tanzania.
“Vodacom Business is all about changing the way our clients do business, by providing world class managed and converged communication solutions to the African market”, he says.
“At the heart of changing the Tanzanian market are innovation and simplicity. Under the direction of Dylan Lennox, managing executive of Vodacom Business Tanzania, we will offer managed and converged solutions under three main product portfolios; voice, internet and data; providing tools for Tanzania to unleash its business potential by marrying the best the world has to offer with the realities on the ground.”
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The March towards major external currency moves on in China.
Their plan unfolds. The West has no plan so therefore nothing unfolds.
No plan is perfect as it produces nothing. Nothing unfolds whatsoever.
HSBC facilitates trade settlement using Chinese’s Renminbi currency
www.chinaview.cn 
2009-11-11 14:07:49
JAKARTA, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) — The Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) launched trade transaction service with Chinese currency Renminbi here, makes Indonesia the sixth country in ASEAN countries enjoying the service, a senior HSBC official said here on Wednesday.
China will continuously play an important role as the main trade partner for Indonesian businessmen. "The Chinese government’s policy to allow Renminbi as trade payment currency would improvethe trade between the two countries," Head of Trade and Supply Chain HSBC Indonesia Vincent C. Sugianto said.
Citing the results of its Trade Confidence Index survey for the fourth quarter this year, he said the Indonesian businessmen wish to improve their businesses with their Chinese counterparts.
The commencement of HSBC’s trade payment with Chinese Renminbi currency service in Indonesia was marked with a transaction conducted by one of HSBC Indonesia’s customers PT Duta Permata Murni with its business counterpart in Shanghai, China recently.
The other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries served with HSBC’s Renminbi Trade Settlement service are Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam.
China to guide yuan with eye on major currencies
By Zhou Xin and Jason Subler
Wednesday, November 11, 2009; 5:11 AM
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Wednesday it will consider major currencies in guiding the yuan, suggesting a departure from an effective dollar peg that has been in place since the middle of last year.
The reference to a new set of benchmarks for determining the value of the yuan holds out the possibility of a departure from recent practice, which has seen the currency held steady since mid-2008 around 6.83 per dollar.
"Following the principles of initiative, controllability and gradualism, with reference to international capital flows and changes in major currencies, we will improve the yuan exchange rate formation mechanism," the central bank said in a 46-page monetary policy report.
It was the first time since the landmark revaluation and launching of forex reforms in July 2005 that the People’s Bank of China has strayed from the language of keeping the yuan "basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level" when discussing future forex reforms in such quarterly reports.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
As paper gold exchanges proliferate, more real bullion will be required for warehouse stock to give the paper contracts some semblance of reality.
Delivery problems will also increase as trader/investor interest in gold internationally increases because gold dealers tack on premiums not existent in the paper for delivery market.
The last day of gold ETF greatness is the first day a paper exchange has a public problem with delivery anywhere.
Be advised.
Hong Kong Mercantile to Offer Gold Futures Contract
By Debra Mao
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange aims to start a gold futures contract by January, the company’s maiden offering as it seeks to take advantage of rising investor demand in the metal, which traded today at a record.
“We foresee Hong Kong establishing benchmark pricing of gold in the Asian time zone,” Chairman Barry Cheung said today at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong. “Priorities changed” from an initial plan to begin business with a fuel-oil contract amid a shift in customer interest, Cheung said.
Gold has surged to an all-time high, driven by a weaker dollar and mounting investor concern that increased government spending worldwide to combat the global recession will debase paper currencies and fuel an increase in inflation.
Still, “Asian markets will still follow international markets for the time being” for gold, said Qu Mingyi, a dealer at Bank of China Ltd. in Shanghai. “It’s not like copper, because speculation and investment interest in gold is higher.”
During Asian hours, gold futures are traded in yuan on the Shanghai Futures Exchange and in dollars on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., Asia’s third-largest stock market, also began offering futures trading on Oct. 20, 2008. Hong Kong Mercantile’s planned contract is denominated in dollars.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You can make money long, with close technical analysis respect, with whatever base metal China is buying regardless of the expert opinions prolifically offered by the investment/commodity industry. It will be wild but right.
Copper Rises as Chinese, Japanese Factories Signal Metal Demand
By Anna Stablum
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — Copper rose to the highest price this month in New York and London as industrial production climbed in China, the world’s largest metals user, and machinery orders exceeded forecasts in Japan, the fourth biggest.
China’s industrial production climbed 16.1 percent in October, the most since March 2008, the statistics bureau said today. Japanese orders gained more than twice the pace economists estimated in September, signaling that a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy may be sustained.
“The data is showing strong growth in China,” Robin Bhar, an analyst at Credit Agricole SA’s Calyon unit in London, said by phone. “The Japanese numbers were better than expected so maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
December-delivery copper gained 5.5 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $3.0155 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division at 8:17 a.m. local time. It reached $3.0375 earlier, the highest intraday price since Oct. 30. Copper for three-month delivery rose 1.7 percent to $6,642 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange.
The Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s performance, fell as much as 0.3 percent to its lowest level since August last year. A weaker U.S. currency makes dollar- priced metals cheaper to those with other monies.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
How much of this is dollar related? I would think most of it over the last 60 days.
Weimar, here we come. The equity gang should love it when the dollar trades at USDX .6200
What would be required on the dollar for Dow 30,000? How about under USDX .5200
S&P 500 Climbs to Near 13-Month High as Commodities Rally
By Mary Childs
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks extended a global advance, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to near a 13- month high, as China’s industrial production surged and policy makers signaled interest rates will remain at a record low. Gold jumped to a record.
Bank of America Corp. and Home Depot Inc. led the Dow Jones Industrial Average above its highest close since October 2008. Toll Brothers Inc. led homebuilders higher after saying orders surged and cancellations slowed. Barrick Gold Corp., the largest producer of bullion, and Alcoa Inc. climbed with metals prices. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.8 percent, lifting its six-day rally to 7.5 percent.
The S&P 500 increased 0.1 percent to 1,094.49 at 11:56 a.m. in New York and climbed as high as 1,105.37, above its highest close since Oct. 2, 2008. The Dow added 11.94 points, or 0.1 percent, to 10,258.91. Almost three stocks gained for every two falling on the New York Stock Exchange.
“You got people out there saying the bear market rally’s over,” said Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida, which manages $214 billion. “I think they’re smoking dope.”
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
And so it goes in a planetary sense.
Gold is going to $1224, $1278, $1650 and then on the Alf’s numbers.
Vietnam to allow gold imports to stabilise market
11.11.09, 06:25 AM EST 
By John Ruwitch and Ho Binh Minh
HANOI, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Vietnam’s central bank on Wednesday lifted a 1-1/2-year-old ban on gold imports in a bid to stabilise the market after a sharp rise in prices helped drive the country’s dong currency to a record low.
‘The State Bank of Vietnam will allow gold imports with a volume sufficient to intervene in the market in order to stabilise the market, combat speculation and prevent an impact on the interests of the people,’ the central bank said on its Web site, www.sbv.gov.vn.
Five or six companies would be allowed to import unlimited quantities of gold, state-run news Web site VNexpress.net quoted State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Giau as saying on Wednesday afternoon.
He did not give details or a timeframe.
The ban on gold imports since May 2008 led to a gap between domestic and international prices, and recently traders say that spread, plus the rise in gold prices globally, triggered a surge in demand for dollars.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
What is wrong with Mr. Zoellick? Does he not watch F-TV?
This is the new normal. People don’t have to work to have Wall Street booming. All that is required is $12 trillion from the Treasury and Federal Reserve.
The bubble machine will save us.
World Bank warns unemployment threatens US economy
By ALEX KENNEDY (AP)
SINGAPORE — Stubbornly high joblessness threatens to trigger loan defaults and drag on consumption next year, hobbling a U.S. economy struggling to rebound from recession, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Wednesday.
Zoellick warned that the U.S. unemployment rate, which jumped to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October, will likely remain elevated in 2010.
"You’re going to have problems with delinquencies of credit card loans, consumer loans, people won’t be able to pay their mortgages," Zoellick told reporters in Singapore. "Some banks are going to continue to be troubled by bad loans."
Government stimulus spending will likely fuel economic growth through the middle of next year, Zoellick said. After that, consumer spending and business investment must take the baton to boost expansion, he said.
"If you’ve got large scale unemployment, if you’ve got consumers rebuilding savings and deleveraging, I don’t think the consumer is going to play that role," he said. "What’s the other source of demand?"
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
No problem. Just watch the movie "Armageddon" starring Bruce Willis.
It is time well spent as it is a lesson in "exploration drilling 101."
Bear is my favorite driller in that movie.
Asteroid passes just 8,700miles from Earth – with only 15 hours warning
By Claire Bates
Last updated at 10:01 AM on 11th November 2009
Although no one noticed at the time, the Earth was almost hit by an asteroid last Friday.
The previously undiscovered asteroid came within 8,700miles of Earth but astronomers noticed it only 15 hours before it made its closest approach.
Its orbit brought it 30 times nearer than the Moon, which is 250,000 miles away.
But before you head for the nuclear bunkers you will be relieved to learn the tumbling rock was only 23ft across. Similar sized objects pass by this close to Earth about twice a year and impact on the planet about once every five years.
Astronomers believe the object, called 2009 VA, would have almost completely burned up while entering Earth’s atmosphere, causing a brilliant fireball in the sky but no major damage to the surface.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Turkey is playing with fire. They really are not up to the game they are playing.
Turkey runs hot and cold
By Andrew Novo
Autumn has proved a busy season for Turkey as the nation of more than 76 million continues to establish itself as a regional hegemon while pursuing a policy of "no problems with neighbors". While the process of reconciling with neighbors – a tenuous agreement with Armenia, de-mining the border with Syria, a new energy deal with Russia and open amity with Iran – is yielding results, "no problems with neighbors" may mean new problems with old friends.
Turkish foreign affairs have made recent headlines: on October 10, Turkey signed an agreement normalizing relations with Armenia. The border between the two countries, closed since 1993, was opened. Two days later, Turkey canceled a joint air force exercise with Israel. A few days after that, the European Union released its annual report on the progress made by countries aspiring to EU membership.
Naturally, Turkey figured prominently in the report, which many commentators saw as a balancing act, pitting Turkey’s progress – improvements in relations with Armenia and Syria abroad, and more rights for Kurds and improved civil-military relations at home – against its shortcomings: a lack of progress on the Cyprus issue and the recent ruling and fine against the Dogan Media Group.
The dichotomy inherent in the EU report mirrors larger questions not only about Turkish politics and society but also about the country’s diplomatic posture. Turkey is familiar with occupying a unique position in world affairs. As recently as the early 20th century, it was a polyglot Muslim empire with deep roots in Europe. In the time-worn but geographically accurate phrase, it is the bridge between Europe and Asia.
