FeedPosted Nov 17th 2009 3:00PM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, India, China, Russia, Newsletters, Commodities, Stocks to Buy
Daniel Frishberg -- a former Wall Street insider and the current host of BizRadio -- offers an intriguing glimpse behind the scenes of the gold market.
In his The Moneyman.com Gold & Oil Report, he questions the role of not just overall market fundamentals, but short positions held by institutions. He also looks to a new long positions in silver.
Frishberg explains, "There are plenty of reasons to be bullish on the future of gold prices, including a weak US dollar. Further, India's Central Bank recently announced their purchase of gold from the IMF. Russian and Chinese Central Bankers have also expressed an interest in purchasing the remaining IMF gold.
Continue reading Gold and silver: Frishberg looks behind the scenes
Posted Nov 17th 2009 11:00AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: India, China, Brazil, Russia, Avon Products (AVP), Clorox Co (CLX), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Procter and Gamble (PG), Kimberly-Clark (KMB)
The rest of the world is going to help U.S. consumer product manufacturers next year. Look for international growth to push the likes of Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Avon (AVP) and Clorox (CLX) higher in 2010, according to Fitch Ratings. In an interview with Reuters, a director gave the Fitch's outlook for consumer goods.
The household and personal care segments increased revenue every year from 2003 to 2008. So, 2009 was but a bump in the road. Even in a recession, you need toilet paper and shampoo, so expect the spending to come back.
Continue reading Consumer goods to gain 5% next year, according to Fitch
Posted Nov 13th 2009 11:00AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, China, Russia, McDonald's (MCD)
For McDonald's (MCD), 32,000 restaurants in 100 countries isn't enough. The quick service restaurant announced in a meeting with Wall Street analysts that it will open 1,000 new restaurants next year. Most will be in the United States, China, Australia, Russia, Germany and France. Don't expect to see any in Iceland, though, as the company is closing its three restaurants there and has no plans to return in the near future.
The company is also looking to rehabilitate the interiors and exteriors of another 2,300 locations in 2010 – approximately half of them in Europe. In all, this should cost around $2.4 billion. For 2009, McDonald's expects its capital expenditures to reach $2.1 billion on 900 new restaurant openings. The chain is increasing its rate of new restaurant openings by more than 10% from 2009 to 2010.
Continue reading McDonald's to add another thousand golden arches next year
Posted Nov 10th 2009 5:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Russia

There's perhaps no better example of how much the world has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago and the end of the Cold Ware shortly thereafter, than the following: an American flips a switch to turn on a light in his or her home and the power came from where?
The Soviet Union.
That's right: from the Soviet Union. Unknown to many Americans, about 10% of the electricity in the United States is generated by fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Soviet-era ones,
The New York Times reported. Today, 45% of the fuel in American nuclear reactors stems from former Russian bomb material.
Continue reading U.S. electricity, brought to you from ... the Soviet Union
Posted Nov 5th 2009 4:30PM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: India, China, Brazil, Russia, Market matters, Money and Finance Today, Federal Reserve
The US dollar is down 20% since 2002 on a trade weighted basis. Other world economies like China are dynamic, with growth rates of 8 and 9%. With that kind of clout, countries like China, India and Brazil, can choose where to place their reserves.
Slowly, developing countries are shifting their reserves away from the dollar into the euro and yen. Neil Mellor, strategist at Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK), which has some $20 trillion dollars in assets under custody said: "I don't think there will be an imminent move, but it is quite clear there's a plan to shift reserves to a more balanced portfolio."
Barclays Capital Research reported that central banks placed 63% of new cash in non US currencies between April and July.
Continue reading Central Banks lead a shift away from the dollar
Posted Nov 4th 2009 5:15PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Russia, Mexico, Canada, Oil
Under the radar: Some trends are obvious enough and visible to all investors. Others are more-subtle, but are just as potent, and these often slip 'under the radar.'
Case in point: Saudi Arabia's oil exports to the United States have fallen to a 22-year low, at 745,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August, the latest month for which data is available, from 1.14 million bpd in July, according to data compiled by the
U.S. Energy Information Agency. August's 745,000 bpd total is the lowest since December 1987. On a year-over-year basis (August 2008-August 2009), those exports are down about 50%.
Continue reading Under the radar: Saudi oil exports to U.S. fall to 22-year low
Posted Oct 27th 2009 1:40PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Russia, Economic data, Recession, Financial Crisis
What happens when a bank has to accept the collateral posted for loans? Well, in Russia, it's like the punchline to a bad Yakov Smirnoff joke. "In Russia, when a bank takes collateral, it has to set up a pigpen!"
Well, this is exactly what happened to Alexander Lebedev's OAO National Reserve Bank. It wound up with 40,450 of them. As Russian banks are coping with the financial crisis, they are finding themselves with a variety of hard goods that they never expected to receive.
Continue reading Pigs and panties: Russian banks stuck with unexpected collateral
Posted Sep 24th 2009 4:40PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, India, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Recession, Financial Crisis
The
G-20 is meeting again, this time in Pittsburgh, and as is so often the case when the world's industrial powers gather, the operative phrase is 'lower your expectations.'
What can investors look for? Well, one thing investors should not look for is any G-20 type of action on banker compensation/bonuses, other than a call for each nation, 'to do more to ensure that constructive incentives are in place' to prevent a repeat of the lending practices/perverse incentives that helped trigger the global financial crisis. There is support for compensation caps in Europe (except Germany); however, the United States and United Kingdom oppose them, so the issue is a non-starter.
Continue reading The G-20 meets in Pittsburgh, and expectations are low
Posted Sep 24th 2009 10:30AM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Good news, Industry, Competitive strategy, Russia, Middle East, BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Mexico, Oil, Israel

The oil industry has been working hard to find new oil reserves, and so far this year
the efforts have been paying off.
It has been a year with some major discoveries that have put the oil industry in a good position to make it the year with the highest level of new discoveries since 2000.
A big reason for the increase in discoveries is improvements in technology that has allowed oil hunters to drill deeper and break through tougher rocks than they were previously able to do.
Continue reading A good year for oil discoveries
Posted Aug 3rd 2009 3:20PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Rants and raves, Russia, Sotheby's (BID), Personal finance, Headline news, Recession, Financial Crisis
Damien Hirst has gotten to the point where the sound of his own voice isn't good enough – now he needs a record of his thoughts for the ages. He and fellow artist Richard Prince (who actually has some talent) discuss the pains of the art market in Requiem II, which is scheduled to be published by Other Criteria this fall. Of course, Hirst is one of the publishing house's founders, making one wonder if this is the only most effective way for him to get a book published.
If a recent interview with ArtNews is any indication, Requiem II will contain the insights you'd come to expect from an artist of Hirst's caliber. My personal favorite: "Yeah, we ain't gonna sell as much art, art shows are gonna get better now the focus shifts away from money."
Brilliant.
Continue reading Art market sucks, Hirst and Prince turn to books
Posted Jul 21st 2009 6:00PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Forecasts, Products and services, Competitive strategy, PepsiCo (PEP), China, Russia

So far this has been a pretty decent earnings season, and soft drink giant
PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:
PEP) gets its turn to impress Wall Street tomorrow morning when it
releases its second quarter numbers.
The company will be announcing its second quarter earnings before the market opens tomorrow, and analysts are expecting to see earnings of $1.00 a share from the world's second largest beverage maker. For the same period last year PepsiCo posted earnings of $1.03.
Continue reading PepsiCo earnings preview
Posted Jul 21st 2009 3:00PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Forecasts, India, China, Brazil, Russia
Its sights set on the United States and Asia, South Korea's $30 billion sovereign wealth fund is hunting for equities. Korea Investment Corp. (KIC) doesn't see bonds outperforming stocks over the long term, which is what has prompted the move.
Once the reallocation is executed, equities will account for half of KIC's "traditional" investments. Today, it stands at 40%. High quality equities and fixed income securities comprise 90% of KIC's portfolio, with the rest, one would gather, consisting of "non-traditional" investments.
Continue reading Korean sovereign, pension funds preparing to load up on equities
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