It has been a morning session of two halves.
In Asia, the mood was somber, and stocks fell with the Shanghai Composite (+1.1%) outperforming on another late session binge-fest by the National Team, and the Nikkei 225 (-1.4%), Hang Seng -1%, Kospi -0.2%, ASX -0.6%, Sensex -0.4% and the South Korean Won all down following news of the biggest Chinese Yuan devaluation in five weeks.
Submitted by Henry Hewitt via OilPrice.com,
After Peak Debt Comes Deflation
Paper money, ‘the Heaven-sent leaf’, is nothing new, but it has not always been held in high regard nor previously attained its unquestioned position as the lubricant of trade, financial markets and the road to wealth.
For the longest time, it was "the most hated rally ever" and, as even the Davos crowd has now admitted, with good reason: it was all central bank manipulation and intervention, both of which are about to lose all potency forcing even the billionaires to admit that "the trade now is to hold as much cash as possible." As the WSJ summarized three weeks ago, the billionaires' "mood here was irritated, bordering on affronted, with what they say has been central-bank intervention that has gone on too long."
Submitted by Koos Jansen via BullionStar.com,
When there is no more gold left in London to export the gold price is likely to go higher on strong global demand induced by economic headwind. At the time of writing the spot gold price is $1,251.80 per ounce, up 18 % year to date, while the S&P 500 is down 9 % year to date.
One day after markets saw a violent return of optimism, which sent stocks around the globe and US equity futures soaring (the US was closed for President's Day) driven by terrible Japanese and Chinese economic data which in turn hinted at more central bank easing, animal spirits have cooled off despite some truly unprecedented Chinese credit numbers.