Risk Aversion is strong once again…  Currencies get sold…  What’s China really up to?  RBA to leave rates unchanged? And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! Some people have the day off today, so we’ll probably not be back in full force until tomorrow… Not that we’ve been in full force, as a workforce in the U.S. for some time… But that’s another story for another day! Today is a new day, and new week!

Friday’s thinned out markets were not what the currencies wanted to see, as the bias to Risk Aversion was magnified in the thinned out markets, only making the selling of the currencies even worse… Some “levels” were hit in the thinned out markets, and that caused even more selling in the overnight markets as Japan and Asia came on board.

I’m really kind of shocked at the Asian selling… You may recall that last week

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Reuters reports that US businessmen will press Barack Obama to urge for less corruption and greater openness towards foreign companies during his visit to Moscow.  French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer have joined in the debate stoked by China and Russia about global coordination of currencies.  Troika Dialog has suggested that the Economic Development Ministry's forecast of an 8.5% contraction of GDP this year may be 'too cautious'.  The corporate sector's foreign debt has grown to $436.8 billion as of July 1, from $420.7 billion as of April 1, suggesting that borrowing has begun again.  It appears that a Russian sovereign wealth fund may be interested in buying a stake in car maker Porsche.  Despite reports of stalling, Magna's deal with Opel is apparently nearing completion.  US farm machinery maker ...

The French economy, which is Europe’s third largest, will slip into its first recession in 16 years in the first quarter of 2009 according to the Bank of France this morning. French gross domestic product will shrink 0.6 percent in the three months through March, following a 1.1 percent contraction in the final quarter 2008. br /br /a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SZAgIaWnsNI/AAAAAAAAMmQ/dVPTEd4iRMc/s1600-h/france+GDP.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 229px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SZAgIaWnsNI/AAAAAAAAMmQ/dVPTEd4iRMc/s400/france+GDP.png” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300772090300313810″ //abr /br /br /Basically France has steered clear of “technical” recession to date due to very slight growth (0.1%) acheived in Q3 2008. That being said, it is also the case that the French economy is certainly the “eurozone big 4″ economy which is holding up best during the current crisis. Doubtless when all this is over we will spend a good deal of time talking about why this is.

French Hedge Fund Guide1 Page Guide to Hedge Funds in FranceHere is a short collection of articles on the hedge fund industry in France. I am always looking for more valuable online tools and resources to add to these geographical hedge fund guides to the hedge fund industry. If you have a white paper or PowerPoint that I can include here please send me an email and I will post it for everyone's benefit.Great in depth, thorough overview of hedge funds by the Bank of FranceFrance's alternative investment industry has taken a major step forward with the approval by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, of the first funds under a regime known as ARIA EL. The French acronym stands for Agréé à Règles d'Investissement Allégées, à ...