Moody's Investors Service has downgraded its outlook on Paccar Inc. (PCAR) and its main financing arm to Negative from Stable, expecting the heavy truck maker to continue to face difficulties due to a slump in truck demand. The credit ratings agency has also affirmed its A1 long-term and Prime-1 short-term ratings for Paccar and the financing arm. A1 is an investment-grade rating four notches below the top triple-A rating. Obligations rated A by Moody’s are considered upper-medium grade and are subject to low credit risk. Moody’s provides Prime-1 rating to taxable securities with maturity not exceeding thirteen months. Short-term ratings are based on the securities ability to honor short-term financial obligations. In the second quarter of 2009, Paccar had lost a penny per share, excluding a one-time tax gain. Net revenues slipped 55% driven by a significant fall in volumes on the back of a ...

Moody's Investors Service upgraded Wells Fargo & Co.'s (WFC) preferred stock rating by two notches on Thursday, saying that the bank's financial flexibility had improved after an $8.6 billion stock sale.

The San Francisco, California-based firm had to raise capital by selling shares after the government's stress tests indicated that it required $13.7 billion to buffer itself against potential near-term losses. Federal regulators determined that Wells Fargo's requirement was second only to Bank of America (BAC) among the 10 large banks that had been asked to plug their capital holes.

The credit ratings agency boosted Wells Fargo's preferred stock to Ba3 from B2 and said the bank's current capital position reduces the threat of a dividend cut. Moody's had slashed this rating by nine notches last March on concerns regarding Wells Fargo's short-term capital ratio.

Shares of Wells Fargo jumped 5.74% to an

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /With capital inflows to the CEE economies slowing to a trickle in Eastern Europe, a sharp correction is now underway in most countries' external imbalances and in particular in their current-account deficits. For the CEE-6 (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey), net private capital flows are forecast to slow to $59.5 billion in 2009, down from an estimated $161.9 billion in 2008, according to estimates from the Institute For International Finance. The basic concern is that those countries with significant external deficits are extremely vulnerable to foreign capital reversals, especially in the current environment of global credit tightening.br /br /br /FDI flows (which are generally considered more stable and less susceptible to rapid outflows than other capital flows) have been the main form of financing for current-account deficits in recent years, but such inflows are set to slow sharply in 2009. The Economist estimates ...

GoldDrivers 2009 - Extraordinary Bullish Outlook For Gold Eric Hommelberg

Gold proves itself as only true alternative for the dollar Confidence in currencies shaken to the core Gulf countries are keen to break away from the link with the US dollar Chinese appetite for US debt in decline Former Bank of England official expects dollar collapse Investors fleeing into gold as US prints trillions HSBC, Citigroup, Merril Lynch, Goldman Sachs all turning bullish on gold Senior gold shares ready to move higher after impressive 100% bull run since October 2008 Junior gold shares waking up - bottomed out in December 2008

This piece is an update on “GoldDrivers

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In the currency market, the dollar rose against the euro. Late Wednesday, the euro was trading at $1.2846 vs. $1.3044 on Tuesday.

The dollar got a lift against the euro after credit-ratings agency Fitch Ratings downgraded Russia’s long-term foreign and local currency ratings, or IDRs, to BBB from BBB+.

The downgrade puts pressure on the euro because Russia will likely be forced to sell euros to rebalance its currency basket.

“The Russian debt-downgrading once again highlights the strains within the European financial system with weaker commodity prices playing no small part,” said Andrew Wilkinson, of Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich, Conn.

“Russia as an important trading partner means that this downgrade cannot do one jot of good for the larger eurozone in the grand scheme of things,” Wilkinson added.

“There is no respite for the ruble at the moment,”” wrote strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman. “In turn, none of this is particularly supportive

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Gaza bombing has dollar on the run…  More proof we’re turning Japanese…  Adding to the debt burden…  What will deflation do for the dollar? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

The currencies had a split personality while I was gone too… At first, they rallied like there was no tomorrow, but then sold off, and then range traded. So, we’ll finish the year on a down note for most of the currencies, but knowing all too well that the markets are beginning to realize that the debts the U.S. is chalking up are not going to go away, and in fact they’re just going to get worse, and that spells bad times for the dollar… Eventually…

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By Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /Russia's foreign-exchange reserves have been now been declining very rapidly since mid August, and as the money goes so does the faith that the large stock of reserves the country built up during the boom times would be sufficient to see them through any downturn in energy prices. As the money leaves, so it seems does the decade of economic growth and stability which they symbolised. Indeed so rapid has been the decline that Russia's international reserves, which are the third-biggest after those of China and Japan, have now fallen $161 billion, or 27% percent, since 8 August last, and decreased by $17.9 billion to $437 billion in the week to 5 December. Investors have now pulled $211 billion out of the country since August, according to estimates by BNP Paribas.br /br /br /pa href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SUbQptNe4tI/AAAAAAAALyE/K0xlBOy3AlA/s1600-h/russia+GDP.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280137028067844818" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: ...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he had signed a decree recognizing the Georgian rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. In the aftermath to the diplomatic chaos this decision is causing Russia's RTS Stock Index fell more than 6 percent to hit its lowest level since 2006 and the ruble dropped significantly.The RTS index of 48 companies posted the biggest decline among 89 global equity measures tracked by Bloomberg today, while Russia's currency slid to its lowest level in almost seven months against the dollar. Credit-default swaps on Russian debt climbed 7 basis points, according to CMA Datavision prices in London, as the U.K. Foreign Office ``categorically'' rejected President Dmitry Medvedev's move and Italy and France expressed regret. Medvedev's statement today accelerated a decline sparked by a drop of more than 2 percent in crude and slumping metals prices. The ...