Protesting Against More Austerity

Gold fell on Thursday, pressured by the euro's slide to three-week lows versus the dollar after European officials postponed a decision on a bailout package for Greece, which fuelled fears the heavily indebted nation could face a chaotic default. Spot gold was down 0.7 percent at $1,715.59 an ounce at 1232 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $10.70 an ounce at $1,717.40. It remains up 10 percent in the year to date but is well off the record $1,920.30 it hit last year at a time that bad news from the euro zone tended to have a positive effect on gold, which some saw as a haven from turmoil in other markets. "Gold stopped being a safe-haven store of value some time around August or September, when you had a huge spike in prices, followed by a collapse," said ...

(Reuters) - Gold fell on Thursday, pressured by the euro's slide to three-week lows versus the dollar after European officials postponed a decision on a bailout package for Greece, which fuelled fears the heavily indebted nation could face a chaotic default. Spot gold was down 0.7 percent at $1,715.59 an ounce at 1232 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were down $10.70 an ounce at $1,717.40. It remains up 10 percent in the year to date but is well off the record $1,920.30 it hit last year at a time that bad news from the euro zone tended to have a positive effect on gold, which some saw as a haven from turmoil in other markets. "Gold stopped being a safe-haven store of value some time around August or September, when you had a huge spike in prices, followed by a collapse, ...

(Reuters) - Stocks edged higher on Tuesday as investors awaited the outcome of discussions on a bailout package for Greece that is critical to the country avoiding a chaotic default. Greek officials worked on the draft of a text on the 130-billion-euro bailout plan that will be put to political leaders for approval while strikers protesting against more austerity tussled with police outside parliament. A light U.S. economic calendar this week shifted investor focus back to the euro zone. With the S&P 500 up nearly 7 percent this year the market has grown hesitant before Greek leaders put pen to paper on the terms of the deal. An improving technical picture for equities, reasonable earnings, better economic data and optimism over Europe's debt crisis were all boosting stocks, said Marc ...

No discernible New Year’s Eve hangover for the markets yesterday, Fellow Reckoner. The Dow, like those insufferable individuals seen jogging early on Sunday morning, put in a chipper performance, racking up roughly 2% gains for the session. The same could not be said of your managing editor, however, who allowed himself to be talked into more celebrations than were probably necessary over the long weekend. Perhaps it was a subconscious effort on our part to avoid the great disappointment in the life of one John Maynard Keynes. It is said that the (in)famous economist and investor remarked on his deathbed, “my only regret in life is that I didn’t drink enough Champagne.” An admirable lament, to be sure…and a clear lesson for the rest of us. Let us therefore resolve not to repeat the ...

The Week Ahead Highlights * EUR - That sinking feeling * All eyes on Mervyn King * The outlook for USD/JPY looks promising * RBA expectations driving the Aussie * Technicals suggest a short term bottom for the buck * Key data and events to watch next week EUR - That sinking feeling European peripheral debt concerns are back front and center, with Portuguese bond yields hitting new Euro-era all-time highs and CDS rising again. Yet there doesn't seem to be any single development behind the renewed tensions. If we were to suggest the primary cause, it would be our view of a slow-developing sense of disappointment over EU negotiations on strengthening the EFSF (the current stabilization fund for peripheral bailouts, to be replaced by the so-called permanent crisis ...

We still can’t shake the admission from the Greek Prime Minister that there were “holes” in the budget and tax collection was in “shambles”. While markets have initially embraced the Greek announcement of a 3rd set of new austerity programs, we have a hard time believing that these optimistic goals are actually attainable. It’s easy to austerity “grandstand”, the hard part is execution and we are uncertain Greece has the infrastructure and willpower to execute. Getting nearly no press was today’s sit-in at the Finance Ministry by hundreds of communists from Greece's All-Workers Militant Front protesting new “draconian measures”, a trend we expect will accelerate (general strike scheduled for March 16th). When you cut through the hype, including speculation of hedge fund conspiracy to ...