a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZckZ-8naz0/STWJ2H6Am7I/AAAAAAAACOg/VQc6DcFdOYk/s1600-h/Iceland+036.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZckZ-8naz0/STWJ2H6Am7I/AAAAAAAACOg/VQc6DcFdOYk/s400/Iceland+036.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275274101462703026" border="0" //abr /A good read on what happened in Iceland a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/magazines/fortune/iceland_gumbel.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest"from Fortune/a.

Japanese yen rallies…  Renminbi stumbles…  A very tough data week in store…  Rate cuts all around the world… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Well… When I left you last Wednesday, I had thought that we could be on the cusp of a “change” in the currencies, as the Trading Theme that had held a tight grip on the currencies since July, was thrown to the side for a couple of days… But, I doubt “that” has happened, as a return to risk aversion is back on the table, which means the currencies and precious metals get sold, while Japanese yen, and U.S. Treasuries (read dollars) get bought.

And Japanese yen is “getting bought!” Yen is trading

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Tuesday was the third day in a row that gold and silver got sold off as soon as trading began in the Far East…and as I write this, Wednesday morning in Asia is shaping up the same way. Gold was down about $15 when the Comex opened in New York on Tuesday…and a ferocious $25 rally (tech funds?) got stopped dead in its tracks at precisely 9:00 a.m. Eastern time…the second day in a row it didn’t get past $830 the ounce. Silver’s fate was similar. Both sold off from there and both finished basically unchanged from Monday. The HUI traded as low as 218…but managed to tack a 5% gain onto that number to close in slightly positive territory for the day.

Monday’s open interest numbers were interesting. Gold open interest fell 5,533 contracts to 282,978…another new low. One would think that it should have gone up with the gold

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Once again, I am flattering an entry with a picture taking here in Switzerland where I am currently entertaining courses at HEC Lausance. As you can see, it is a beautiful place and also, as it were, very interesting with respect to tail fume patterns from the enormous amount of airplanes moving back and forth over le Lac Léman (middle of Europe remember!). Posting is slim I know, but so unfortunately is time; I can assure that it is not out of lack of enthusiasm to write and opinion on current events.

Moving on to the topic du jour it is interesting to observe wow fast things sometimes change. We need not go back more than 5-6 months to observe how hawkish central banks across the economic edifice were busy scrambling to raise rates in order to quell inflationary pressures. Most notably, the

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Iceland today (Thursday) secured nearly $11 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other nations. The bailout will help the island nation stabilize its currency and recapitalize its banks, but it will also saddle its tiny population with a huge debt burden.

The IMF will lend Iceland $2.1 billion, and Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will loan $2.5 billion to help the country re-float its currency and shore up its banking sector.

The Icelandic krona, or crown, has lost about 70% of its value since the nation’s financial crisis first began. The government put restrictions on currency trade as it wrestled with the crisis, however one of the stipulations of the IMF loan is that Reykjavik once again float its currency. Once it does, it’s likely that there will be a “massive currency outflow,” Iceland’s central bank said.

The krona, which traded at 176 against the euro

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Industrialized countries are dropping like flies into recession. So far, emerging markets have avoided the economic meltdown. But that is changing, says David Newman. He says investors should not be tempted by the huge bond yields on offer in countries like Argentina. In today’s climate, knowing you will get your money back is much more valuable.

This from The Sovereign Society:

I found this chart online and thought it was such a good representation of what is going on that I just had to share it with you. (Thanks to the folks at http://frigginloon.com/ )

As I’ve written about before, this is really just the beginning of the flood of bad news we’re going to continually hear about over the next few months.

As you look back over this list, you’ll notice that none of the emerging market countries are on

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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

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Trading Theme returns…  Automakers’ bailout vote today…  Not using all your arrows…  Housing Starts go back to 1959! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

OK… Whew! What an awful day yesterday for the currencies… In the morning, they ere in rally mode with the euro gaining ground to well within the 1.27 handle. But then the Trading Theme set in, and those gains were wiped out. The Trading Theme was set off by the awful Housing data, which reminded everyone of the deep, dark , dangerous days ahead… I bought some euros, and watched them rise, and went off to do something else… When I returned, they had fallen… UGH! The Japanese yen, however, rallied, as is the case with the Trading Theme… Risk trades get unwound, which benefits dollars, and yen. I’ve explained all this before, so I won’t get into it again, but there’s someone that has gone into the problems

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Osteosarcoma is a childhood cancer, usually affecting the bones of children and young adults during adolescent growth spurts. Most of the tumors are found in large bones such as the femur, tibia and humerus, though the tumors can occur in any bone. Although fewer than 1,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, the survival rate of children with osteosarcoma has remained at 60-65 percent since the 1980s.

IDM Pharma Inc. (Nasdaq: IDMI) concentrates on developing innovative cancer products that destroy cancer cells by activating immunity or preventing tumor recurrence. The company focuses on reaching full therapeutic and commercial potential for each of its products, including its resectable osteosarcoma treatment.

The company today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) released a positive review of IDM’s L-MTP-PuE, or MEPACT, to treat resectable osteosarcoma. The committee also recommended that

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Osteosarcoma is a childhood cancer, usually affecting the bones of children and young adults during adolescent growth spurts. Most of the tumors are found in large bones such as the femur, tibia and humerus, though the tumors can occur in any bone. Although fewer than 1,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, the survival rate of children with osteosarcoma has remained at 60-65 percent since the 1980s.

IDM Pharma Inc. (Nasdaq: IDMI) concentrates on developing innovative cancer products that destroy cancer cells by activating immunity or preventing tumor recurrence. The company focuses on reaching full therapeutic and commercial potential for each of its products, including its resectable osteosarcoma treatment.

The company today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) released a positive review of IDM’s L-MTP-PuE, or MEPACT, to treat resectable osteosarcoma. The committee also recommended that

...