| Aluminium gains, agris spike, crude witnesses profit-taking
MUMBAI: The commodity markets were volatile last week as the surprise Fed move on interest rates caused short-term turbulence. The immediate reaction was a short-term upmove on select base metals as the industrial outlook (at least as a perception) improved and shorts were squeezed. The bullion outlook, too, improved as hedge fund activity was seen driving prices higher. Select agri-commodities spiked higher and the outlook was slightly more upbeat compared with the previous week. MCX volumes fell 2% and open interest tripped by a similar amount on a week-on-week basis. Turnover gainers were copper, mentha oil, potato, zinc and aluminium. Open interest gainers were natural gas, zinc, refined soya oil and chana. Agri-commodities
Chana has established Rs 2,100 level as a critical support and as long as this threshold is not violated downwards, the outlook remains optimistic.
Uncle Sam Crying "Uncle!"
A large part of the problem is that the Central Bank is helpless in the face of bond speculation. The Fed is no Sorcerer. It is the Sorcerer's Apprentice. It can pump unlimited amounts of "liquidity" into the system, but cannot make it flow uphill. As we shall see, new dollars flow to the bond market causing a lot of mischief there, instead of flowing to the commodity market as hoped by the Fed. Up to now leading commodities have outperformed gold. That could change. A select few commodities might continue in the bull-mode for a time, although gold could easily beat them. Most other commodities might go into a bear-mode similar to that of the commodity markets of the 1930's. If that's what was in store, then most investors would be totally lost. They would be navigating without a compass.
Hip-Hop Rumors: Did Wayne Really Get Boo'd? No New Girl For Scrappy!
All content within this section is pure rumor and generally have no factual info outside of what the streets have whispered in our ear. Read on. YESTERDAY'S RUMORS! Hip-Hop Rumors: Angel Lola Luv's Butt Confirmed Fake? Jim Jones and Max B Beefing? Diddy's American Idol? TODAY'S RUMORS! DID WAYNE GET BOOED OR NOT? In a recent report, by a newspaper they said that Lil' Wayne was forced to say sorry to the fine people of Richmond for a weird show that had him leaving early. Well, when he left, they reported that Weezy got booed. I am hearing that this wasn't the truth. Some people that were there told me that when Wayne left the stage, after that first half hearted, performance, the fans booed the DJ for playing music, kinda sending a message that the show was over.
MCX to support Microsoft's rural technology training programme
MUMBAI: Multi Commodity Exchange of India on Thursday announced its support to an ongoing computer literacy programme of Microsoft and Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals in rural Maharashtra.
This marks the launch of MCX's Corporate Social Responsibility initiative aimed at empowering the youth and women of rural areas of the state with technology skills.
Till now over 15,500 people have been trained and more than 24,000 people are using this service across 16 districts by the means of understanding the futures markets prices of the area specific commodities.
MCX's support will help in increasing deployment of laptop and desktop computers and thereby strengthen the ongoing technology training and adoption efforts through the project.
Japan posts highest trade deficit in two years
Japan ran a deficit of 79.34 billion yen ($801 million) in January, much higher than a year-earlier deficit of 3.49 billion yen and market forecasts for a deficit of 5.6 billion yen. Japan often has a trade deficit in January due to the New Year holidays, but even so analysts said the figures were a worry. "Exports maintained double-digit growth for more than two years from late 2005 but they are now losing steam,'' Naoki Murakami, senior economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a note to clients. Imports grew 9.0 per cent from a year earlier to 6.49 trillion yen, the highest figure for the month of January, with imports of crude oil surging 41.0 per cent, the finance ministry said. Exports rose 7.7 per cent to 6.41 trillion yen on a continued fall in shipments to the United States and slower growth in exports to China.
Radio Talk
Here are some technical feedback from a skeptical reader. I'm no technical expert so if anyone wants to challenge David, feel free: Mr. Ho —- A few salient points, requiring only a minimum of research, went missing from your piece on HD Radio: 1) Ibiquity made generous deals with the big radio station owners to get HD broadcasting equipment installed. In turn, radio station owners have additional avenues (i.e., stations or channels) for ad revenue without needing more bandwidth from the FCC. 2) Large radio station owners have proven time and again more stations does not equal more variety. In fact just last week the AJC ran a story on this very subject. True variety only happens when small stations are nourished, something the FCC in recent years has not encouraged.
Overcrowding plagues NFL pregame shows
When the Giants-Bucs game finished Sunday afternoon, I flipped over to CBS and inadvertently stumbled into a historic six-guys-at-the-same-table pregame show: The usual suspects (James Brown, Boomer Esiason, Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe and Coach Cowher) were crowded behind their desk with Charley Casserly, who should be dressed in a Mario Williams jersey that has two middle fingers sewn on the back at all times. And for the next few minutes, those six guys attempted to have a round-table "conversation." Now ... .
Gilmour be'leafs' in his team; In town for the Limestone City Cup ...
Doug Gilmour's name has appeared in newspapers and been heard on sports broadcasts a lot more lately than your average part-time player development advisor's has. It happens whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs begin struggling. Gossip swirls about who needs to be replaced, and who the replacement should be. Gilmour has heard the cries for the the scalps of the general manger, coach, president or any combination thereof. "None of that has anything to do with me," said Gilmour, fresh from a gold-medal winning experience at the recent Spengler Cup as an assistant coach with Team Canada. "If there's an opportunity, they'll call me. I work for the Leafs. I'm coming up to the end of my contract and I'll decide my future from there." Gilmour was in his hometown for the Limestone City Cup hockey tournament as an assistant coach for his son's minor peewee team.
Your View
It might have been pertinent to mention that during all of 2007, the domestic airlines in the United States had no fatalities due to accidents. When one thinks of the millions of passenger miles flown in a year in this country, it almost seems like a miracle. ENID HALLOCK Austin Maybe a revived Republican Once I was a Republican. I voted for Ronald Reagan when I was 18. But as the "ditto heads" took the party farther right in the 1990s and the evangelicals took control, the Republican Party became more about faith than thought. I found that my beliefs in economic conservatism, social moderation, separation of church and state and educated discourse for political difference left me in the apparent minority and often ridiculed.
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