By Keith Fitz-Gerald In a Money Morning commentary back in April, I suggested that while we’d hit a new market bottom, we almost certainly hadn’t hit the market bottom. So have we now? That’s tough to say, although three seemingly unrelated bits of data suggest the ultimate market bottom may be lower still, meaning investors aren’t out of the woods, yet. Let’s take a look: Since 1990, there have been 13 declines of 10% or more in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. And while each drop of this magnitude tends to precede a rally of six months or more, an ultimate market bottom typically hasn’t been established until we’ve seen an average reading of 36.3 in the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index - usually referred to as the VIX Index. Generally regarded as a ...

By Jennifer Yousfi Managing Editor The Boeing Co. (BA), one of Money Morning’s “Global Titans,” yesterday (Wednesday) released a report that predicted $3.2 trillion in aircraft sales over the next 20 years, as air travel picks up despite current price pressures. “During 40 years of producing the Current Market Outlook, we have learned that the resilience of air transport growth comes from its intrinsic importance to the livelihood of people around the world,” the report from Boeing reads. Boeing’s annual Current Market Outlook estimates that passenger travel will grow at a 5% rate, and cargo will grow at a 5.8% over the next several years. Despite record fuel costs, air travel and shipping has become an integral part of daily life for many consumers and businesses. Boeing says that demand will only grow. A lot of that growth is expected to come from ...

By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor Payrolls tumbled for the sixth consecutive month in June, bringing the total number of job losses in the first half of the year to 438,000. Such a steep drop in employment could easily cause consumer spending to falter in the months ahead and drag the economy into a recession. After shedding 62,000 jobs in May, U.S. employers slashed another 62,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said last week. Builders reduced payrolls by 43,000 after cutting 37,000 employees in May. Financial firms cut 10,000 jobs in June after losing 3,000 the month prior. And factory payrolls dropped by 33,000 after declining 22,000 in May. The national unemployment rate has gone up by a full percentage point in the past year, hitting 5.5% in May. The country added 91,000 on average in 2007, but has lost an average of ...

By Jason Simpkins
Associate Editor
Gold surged nearly 4% yesterday (Wednesday), as the U.S. Federal Reserve appears hesitant to raise lending rates despite signs of severely escalating inflation.

The price of gold jumped $30.30 to trade at $915 an ounce as of 11:45 a.m. EDT, its highest level since May.

“The Fed said that inflation is a major concern, but they’re not going to do anything about it, which made gold go ballistic,” Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management, told Bloomberg News. “The dollar is going to get slammed again.”

After meeting yesterday, the Federal Open Market Committee acknowledged inflation as a growing problem, but also expressed its belief that an economic downturn would eventually blunt demand for goods and drive down prices.

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By William Patalon III Executive Editor Money Morning/The Money Map Report As rocky as the global markets have been, the worst is yet to come, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (ADR: RBS) warns. RBS analysts have warned clients to brace for a full-blown crash in the global stock-and-bond markets over the next three months as the conflicting realities of slowing growth and rising inflation paralyze the world’s major central banks - causing “all the chickens [to] come home to roost,” Great Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. The report, which first surfaced late Wednesday, raced across the Internet yesterday (Thursday), though it appears that European news organizations are giving it much wider play than their U.S. counterparts. The predicted swoon would cause the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index - already down 15% from its trading high of 1,576.09 reached ...

By Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director Money Morning/The Money Map Report

As much as I poke fun at my home state of Oregon (with its decidedly liberal tendencies), it’s a phenomenal place to live.

Not only are the people spectacular, so is their attitude.

There’s a real “make-a-difference” philosophy at work out here that manifests itself in everything from our laws to our personal behavior. This philosophy fosters a “can-do” attitude that makes us believe that we can do almost anything - and that includes fighting back against the super-high energy prices that U.S. consumers are struggling with right now.

That’s why my wife and I are really excited to take on a personal challenge, of sorts.

Over the next 12 months, we’re going to try to shave 25% off our total energy and resources bills. This means that we’re going to make our house more

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Investors have been surprised by the FTSE/JSE All Share Index’s strong rally of 24,9% since the market’s low on 23 January 2008. What is even more surprising is the large difference in the improvement of the major sub-indices. Resources companies have rallied by an incredible 44,8% on the back of only a few shares, followed by industrial companies with 18,6% and financial companies with only 9,4%.

As a result of the sharp rise in commodity prices on global markets and the woes of foreign banks (owing to the credit crunch), investors are sorely tempted to switch investments in resources companies to financial companies. However, investors should bear in mind that the return on an investment in a

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Forgive me for a non-stock post. But it will cover the dubious goings on off Wall Street - and is fun. A while back I went looking for a new name for a fund. In passing I came accross New World Capital Management - the most intriguing hedge fund you have never heard of. The fund was run by someone who called themselves Greg Duran - and who hailed from New Mexico. Their record was unbelieveable. Below I have extracted from their marketing materials the records for their two funds. The equities fund monthly return is below: The return for the multi-curreny fund is below: In both cases you should click for more detail - just to show how truly extraordinary these returns are. In July 2007 the ...