A housing meltdown??

That is not exactly a bolt from the blue, but then again for all those of us who were taken in by the joy ride, it well may be the last bell on the Big ol' Bear.
The housing market is predicted to shrink by as much as 25%. With the economy showing no signs of shrugging of the bear, it is only to be expected that the housing market will be the one to take the biggest hit.
With big housing giants already folding like a cheap pack of cards, it is any surprise that the rest of them are feeling the shudders. It is high time that the housing market was regulated to some degree and this way the market can be insured against any more free fall!

The Wall street mirage!

It seems that the Wall street seems to have gained as a result of the Beige book,the report by the Fed indicating that the economy may have slowed down a little but that is a natural process and that the recession has not yet come to haunt the Wall street. Most of the newspapers and the periodicals seem to go about saying that the Wall street rebounded sharply, but that was not the case.
The Wall street did rebound but not as sharply as one would have liked it to. There is some momentum in the market but that is only to be expected and it is the Fed report that is giving this market some buoyancy and not the market itself. What is more, this momentum may be nothing more of a mirage and that the dark days may come sooner than later.
I probably sound like a doomsday prophet, but the fact of the matter is that the sub prime crisis and the mortgage issues have not yet disappeared and that the unemployment rate is bound to sharply increase in the coming months. So to actually say that the Wall street is not going to be affected is kind of behaving like an Ostrich burying its head in the sand.

Industry goes flat as the U.S economy tries to ride out the blizzard!

The industrial output for the month of December remained flat in spite of the best efforts of the Fed to cajole the economy to start running again. It seems that people no loner want to purchase with the same fervor as they used to before. And on top of this, we get reports that the inflation is at its highest in the last 17 years. That is not really a surprise, with the energy prices shooting up to the roof, it was only a matter of time before the food and other essential items started soaring up.
One of the things about the energy prices was that every time it went up so did the essential commodities. Anyway, with the economy trying to ride out the blizzard that seems to be blowing, the last thing that they needed was another bit if bad news. It seems that is just about the only thing that we are getting these days!

Forex update!

The Forex market is a much better money maker than the share market ever was, as this market is governed more by logic than emotions. There are many of us who have heard a lot of the Forex market and yet do not understand the intricacies of the financial world as such. We are all left to ponder as to what the Forex is all about and how do we invest in it and what is our risk exposure and et all.

The Forex market presents an interesting opportunity for both professionals and amateurs alike, to make some good money on their returns. But some of the factors that attracts so much attention to this market is the fact that in the Forex market, one can make money both ways, whether the market goes up or goes down, unlike the share markets. And the other interesting feature of this market is that the investment you put in the market is then ‘hedged’ to a larger margin, thereby netting you greater profits.

This blog was started initially with the idea of exploring ways to make money, but then I got a lot of emails asking me for info on the Forex market as well as the metal markets. So, I have decided to give daily/weekly updates on the Forex markets, metal markets and the Oil rates. The Forex news for today is given below and hope that you will enjoy it and would make it a point to visit this blog often for such updates!

Todays update:

Yen gains against all currencies – The Yen seems to have gained almost against all the currencies listed in the board, with the current trading against the Dollar set at 108.99 per Dollar. This is due to mainly the economy woes in the United States market, the Housing muck-up and the credit crunch. The reality is that no one knows the true exposure of the Banks to the Mortgage crisis and as such, it is to be expected that the markets will be a little nervy. But the Yen, seems to be all bent on trying tom reach for the $100 level. Will this happen? That may well do so and it is the one thing that is bound to give the Japanese central bank and the government many sleepless nights to come!

Which Dollar is weaker?

The Canadian Dollar seems to be setting the record for weakening against the weakest currency today, the U.S Dollar. The Canadian Dollar ahs fallen to $1.0222 per U.S. dollar,its lowest since December. Be that as it may, one of the main causes for this fall is purported to be the job losses that the Canadian economy had to put up with quite recently.
As it is, the Dollar is setting all sorts of record for the day and one can expect that the Canadian Dollar will fall even more, come tomorrow!

Hoarding Gold at $900 an ounce?

With the Dollar seeing new lows against a hoard of currencies, it is time for the Gold to hit new highs as the traders seem to be intent on purchasing the Yellow metal as fears of recession seems to have set in. This is mainly due to the presence of the weak dollar, the already high demand for gold from the Asian countries and also due to the high Oil prices.

One would think that such high rates for the Yellow metal, at $900 an ounce, would soften the buying. But that does not seem to have happened as of yet, if anything, the frenzy seems to have gone from bad to worse in the last few days as the traders keep pushing up the gold prices to new levels.

The irony is that once upon a time, the Dollar was thought to be a safe currency and was pegged to the Gold itself. The delinking of the dollar from the gold happened way back in the ’70. But ever since then , the Dollar has been taking hit after hit, but none as worse as the current times seems to have delivered to it. As things stand, the gold prices are predicted to rise to new levels and one should not be too surprised if the gold starts hitting the $1000 level itself!