Gold and silver didn’t do a lot in early Far East trading on Tuesday. The price for both metals bottomed very early in London…and from there a solid rally in both metals ensued…which ended shortly after the Comex opened for business…and that was it for the day.

The usual NY gold commentator had the following yesterday…”News reports indicate that Turkey imported 15 tonnes of gold in November. Considering that the Turkish currency has slumped by some 30% in the last couple of months, this is actually quite remarkable. Probably it reflects the volume of Turkish imports subsequently re-exported to countries to the south…Today’s ECB (European Central Bank) weekly statement of condition reports that ‘gold and gold receivables’ dropped E115 Mm, which ‘reflected’ gold sales by two captive CBs. At 5.7 tonnes, this is somewhat higher than of late (last week’s quantum was 2.83 tonnes), but is still small even compared to

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Kenmare Resources plc is quoted on the official lists of the Irish and London Stock Exchanges (London:KMR). Its principal activities center on the exploration for commercial deposits of natural resources and the development and operation of mines. For example, the firm’s main asset is the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine, located on the coast of Mozambique. The Moma Mine contains reserves of heavy minerals which include the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile, as well as the high-value zircon mineral. In addition, Kenmare have acquired a Mozanbiquan uranium exploration license. Titanium is considered a valuable resource for industrial producers because it is added to paints and pigments to make the color more opaque. Currently, the titanium market is dominated by a small number of giant mining companies, such as Rio ...

In the currency market, the dollar sank against the euro. Late Friday, the euro was trading at $1.2587 vs. $1.2453 on Thursday. There were no hard economic numbers out on Friday. The major news item seems to have been the belief that President-elect Obama intends to name New York Fed President Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary.

Chris Rupkey, senior economist at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York, represented general market sentiment as he hailed the selection: “A fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness,” Rupkey said. “A crisis manager par excellence who will hit the ground running as he has been on the case since the global funding crisis began way back in July 2007.”

We’ll have to wait and see whether having a key Fed official proves a smart choice to be in charge of the bailout, but at this point even Joe

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When I worked for an investment bank during the dotcom boom, I recall in early 2000 publishing a bearish note on a leading European semiconductor company, which like all tech stocks was on a ludicrous earnings and revenue multiple. It was a top down, reality check piece of research, which asked a simple question: what future market share is the current valuation implicitly assuming? It turned out that even on the most bullish assumptions of consumer device growth, they would have to capture just about 100% of the market to remotely justify their market value, and in a competitive market that was never going to happen. We presented that note to some of the leading global investment institutions who held the stock, and with few exceptions, despite the compelling simplicity of the argument, they retained their bullish stance. Within weeks the Nasdaq crash had started, and within a couple ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow and Harry Wilson17 Nov 2008 Moscow-based investment bankers are at the sharp end of job cutsRussian index slumpsIt seems like a different age, but it was only recently that Moscow-based investment bankers had firms fighting to secure their services and could command pay packages commensurate with demand.Senior Moscow-based bankers and those covering the Russian markets asked for and got lucrative pay deals as local brokers and large international investment banks fought a hiring war to build their businesses in the country.Guaranteed packages in excess of $10m (€7.8m) were not unheard of and even junior staff with experience of the Russian markets received $1m guarantees to join rivals.In early 2007, Russian investment bank Alfa-Bank recruited the head of UBS’ Moscow office Ed Kaufman for a ...

The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar's Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong. To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street is to allocate capital-to decide who should get it and who should not. Believe me when I tell you that I hadn't the first clue. I'd never taken an accounting course, never run a business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job at Salomon ...

American International Group Inc. (AIG) got a $150 billion government rescue package – almost double the initial bailout deal of less than two months ago and the largest ever granted to a private U.S. company – as the ailing insurer continues to burn through its cash at an accelerating rate.

The New York-based AIG will get $40 billion of new capital from the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout package, to help offset the damage wreaked by four consecutive quarterly losses, including a third-quarter deficit of $24.5 billion that the company announced yesterday (Monday), Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Federal Reserve also is slashing an $85 billion loan to $60 billion, and is replacing a separate $37.8 billion loan to the insurance company with $52.5 billion in aid.

These actions were taken by the Treasury Department and the Fed after it became clear that the original deal

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American International Group Inc. (AIG) got a $150 billion government rescue package – almost double the initial bailout deal of less than two months ago and the largest ever granted to a private U.S. company – as the ailing insurer continues to burn through its cash at an accelerating rate.

The New York-based AIG will get $40 billion of new capital from the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout package, to help offset the damage wreaked by four consecutive quarterly losses, including a third-quarter deficit of $24.5 billion that the company announced yesterday (Monday), Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Federal Reserve also is slashing an $85 billion loan to $60 billion, and is replacing a separate $37.8 billion loan to the insurance company with $52.5 billion in aid.

These actions were taken by the Treasury Department and the Fed after it became clear that the original deal

...

American International Group Inc. (AIG) got a $150 billion government rescue package – almost double the initial bailout deal of less than two months ago and the largest ever granted to a private U.S. company – as the ailing insurer continues to burn through its cash at an accelerating rate. The New York-based AIG will get $40 billion of new capital from the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout package, to help offset the damage wreaked by four consecutive quarterly losses, including a third-quarter deficit of $24.5 billion that the company announced yesterday (Monday), Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Federal Reserve also is slashing an $85 billion loan to $60 billion, and is replacing a separate $37.8 billion loan to the insurance company with $52.5 billion in aid. These actions were taken by the Treasury Department and the Fed after it ...

Russia's currency reserves, the third-biggest in the world, are falling steadily as tumbling oil prices and an exodus of capital are piling the pressure on the central bank and government policymakers to accept a devaluation in the ruble. Oil prices which are now down 60% from their july peak, slowing economic growth and increasing investor concern are steadily draining Russia's foreign exchange reserves, which fell 19 percent (to $484.6 billion) in the 12 weeks through Oct. 31. This is down from $598.1 billion in the week before the invasion of Southern Ossetia.Russia had been using the reserves to try and contain the upward movement in the ruble was thought to present a threat to the competitiveness of exports. But resistance is now becoming increasingly difficult in the fact of a 13 percent drop against the dollar since August 1.Bank Rossii began managing the ruble's exchange rate ...