In a meeting with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin made a surprise announcement that the South Stream pipeline, a joint project between Gazprom and Italy's Eni, could be finished before its official start-up date of 2013.  Plans for South Stream's expanded volume were discussed by Russia's Energy Ministry in Bulgaria this week, as was the controversial plan to use the existing Bulgarian gas transit network to aid this expansion. Transneft says it will complete its China pipeline by the end of the year. Russia's Energy Minister is leaving the question of Rosneft's privatization open, with the possibility of selling a 75% stake not to be considered until 2011. Canada-listed mining group SouthGobi Energy Resources has secured a $300 million loan from CIC (China Investment Corp). More on Russia's surging oil industry.  ...

The Moscow Times reports that TNK-BP intends to invest $1.3 billion in upgrading refineries in Russia and Ukraine over the next five years.  Transneft has announced that second-quarter net income advanced 71% from the same period last year.  Total has reportedly received approval from a Russian regulator to purchase a 49% stake in the operator of a gas condensate field in northwest Russia.  China Petrochemical Corporation may help Rosneft fund a Russian refinery in the Far East.  Rosneft is apparently looking for licenses to more than 30 oil and gas deposits in the Arctic offshore area.  Kaisun Energy Group has announced it will buy out a Russian oilfield company, Nobel Holdings Investments, invested in by China Investment Corp.  Kaisun's share prices rose to a record high following the announcement.  Developing oil in Iraq will ...

Sellers back in control… China, FDIC, U.S. consumers trigger global sell-off… Chris Mayer examines a disturbing trend among American investors… Signs of the times: Bernanke frets over commercial real estate, Treasury to sell U.S. mortgages to China… Greg Guenthner with a Far East opportunity growing “at an astronomical rate”…

“Investing in this market is like trying to take cheese out of a set mousetrap,” Chris Mayer begins today. “It’s very tempting to make a grab, but you are also fairly certain about what will happen if you do. The market’s 50% rise from its March lows is stunning. It’s like the cheese in the trap. But we also know that no market moves up like that for long. The kill bar is never far from such rallies.”

Check out Asia early this morning… you can almost hear that bar whipping through the air:

...

GoldDrivers 2009 – Extraordinary Bullish Outlook for Gold

By: Eric Hommelberg ldSeek.com

Dollar topping out Physical demand skyrocketing Supply chain shutting down COMEX Gold Manipulation exposed Gold shares on the move again

It sure has been a brutal year for gold and its shares and many may wonder if the $1030 top clocked in March 2008 marked the top for the gold bull market that started in April 2001. Despite the fact that many analysts want you to believe that gold has failed to act as a

...

Will -533K turn to -600K? … A glimmer of light brings back risk takers…  Another week of data…  Fedspeak today… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! OK… Did you see the rot on labor’s vine Friday? The Jobs Jamboree was very unkind to many, with a 533K jobs lost in November. That number was the worst figure since 1974! The tally of 1.9 million jobs lost this year surpasses the losses of the past two recessions, and according to the Wall Street Journal, signals that the current downturn could be

...

China blasted U.S. economic policy yesterday (Thursday) at the Strategic Economic Dialogue, a two-day summit engineered to address long-term issues between the two countries. Chinese authorities have grown more fervent, and more explicit, with their criticism of the U.S. financial system over the past year, evidence of a shift in the balance of power between the nations.

“Over-consumption and a high reliance on credit is the cause of the U.S. financial crisis,” said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Chinese central bank. “As the largest and most important economy in the world, the U.S. should take the initiative to adjust its policies, raise its savings ratio appropriately and reduce its trade and fiscal deficits.”

This kind of lecture was a deviation from past meetings, which were dominated by U.S. calls for China to better manage its fiscal policies. However, the global financial turmoil that has emanated from the collapsing U.S. housing market has

...

China’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp. (CIC), doesn’t plan to open its wallet to foreign financial firms and banks any time soon.

Still mindful of losing about $6 billion of the $8 billion CIC invested in Morgan Stanley (MS) and Blackstone last year, chairman Lou Jiwei not only bluntly rejected the notion of putting the government’s money into banks outside of its homeland, but did so citing an overwhelming fear.

“I don’t dare to invest in financial institutions now,” Lou, said today (Wednesday) at a conference in Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported. “The policies of the developed nations on these institutions are not clear. Until they are clear, I don’t dare to invest in them. What if they go bust? I will lose everything.”

The timing of Lou’s remarks has to be intentional, as government officials are about to enter its fifth round of continuing

...

In our November 19 post, we said we are monitoring five key dimensions on ten key asset categories to gauge when, how and how much to commit the cash we raised in the summer to the markets in the future.

1. Technical Market Factors 2. Valuation Fundamentals 3. Risk Levels 4. Government Intervention Policies 5. Economic Conditions

Ten Key Asset Categories Relative Performance Since Oct 1:

click image to enlarge

Headlines Re - Government Policies and Economic Conditions:

The headlines in the financial press over the last 24 hours, clearly show that our 4th and 5th monitoring dimensions are not near to being settled enough to risk cash. Consider this headlines sample:

Nov 19 (Financial Times) — Junk bond yields spike — Average yields on US junk bonds have topped 20 per cent for the first time amid rising concerns about a protracted

...

In an article I wrote on October 28th of this year entitled: “China vs. US: Ultimate Economic Showdown,” I made some controversial statements about how the US was losing political and economic clout on the world stage, and how that vacuum of power could let others like China, India, and Japan take a stronger role, especially given the state of the world economy last quarter from the Emerginvest heat map:

One of the ways in which evidence of a tectonic shift in political and economic power has occurred is in those who are able to help the economies which suffered the worst at the hands of the global storm. Traditionally, the US and Europe

...

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) will almost double its stake in state-owned banking giant China Construction Bank Corp., and will control nearly 20% of China’s second-largest bank when the deal is finalized. The official announcement yesterday (Monday) ends months of speculation that the Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA would dump part of its three-year-old investment the Beijing-based bank to offset the effects of the global financial crisis. In an article on Saturday, Money Morning reported that the deal was close, though noting that the actual timing was unknown. Bank of America plans to be “a long-term and significant strategic investor in CCB,” the U.S. lender said in a statement. The shares to be acquired to carry a restriction, however: They can’t be sold before Aug. 29, 2011, unless the China bank provides special permission. According to Caijing– the influential China ...