On New Years eve day, gold got sold off in the Far East a bit…and then the down trend accelerated through London trading, with the bottom being the London p.m. gold fix. From there…and to everyone’s surprise…the price took off to the upside with some real authority. True, there hadn’t been a lot of volume up until that point, but that changed from the London p.m. fix until the close of trading in New York. Silver’s chart was very similar, with the metal turning in an outstanding day as well. Gold put in an “outside day key reversal to the upside”…which is a very bullish technical indicator. The boyz have never…ever…allowed this technical indicator to work in gold…and have taken gold down the very next day to negate it.

The world’s gold market’s were closed on January 1st, but once early morning trading began on January 2nd in the Far East,

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The currency markets reaction to the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cuts has ignited a rally in gold, as investors weigh the benefits of owning the yellow metal versus U.S. Treasuries and the dollar. As a result, gold has started to shine again as a stable source of value at a time when the dollar and other commodities – like oil and copper – have fallen hard. The spot price of gold has climbed above $870 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up about 20% from its October lows. Gold has been on roller coaster ride in 2008, moving from its all time high of $1035 in March, to as low as $681 an ounce. Some of that decline occurred during the recent stock market plunge. Many investors were forced to liquidate profitable gold positions in order to raise money to cover ...

The Falling U.S. Dollar: Taking An About-Face

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist, Investment U Associate Investment Director, The Oxford Club Wednesday, December 17, 2008: Issue #902

Investing requires tough decisions. What to buy? When to buy? How much?

But none more difficult than this: Admitting the fundamentals no longer support an investment you own. Or, as the French philosopher Geoffrey F. Abert summed it up over 900 years ago, “It often takes more courage to change one’s opinion than to stick to it.”

And today I’m living proof.

Just three weeks ago, to the day, I declared, “The dollar’s not done.” I laid out my case about Jim Roger’s being wrong.

But I’m officially changing my stance on the falling U.S. dollar.

To be clear, it’s not because I finally saw the light, recognized the error of my ways, or heeded the “sage” advice of so many of you that wrote in to chastise my

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HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Value Seeker,

U.S interest rates are now near zero.

Just like doomed Japan during the country’s “lost decade” in the 1990s.

Yesterday, the Fed cut interest rates to a record low range of 0 to 0.25 percent.

America’s central bank says the weak economy will “warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for some time.”

[Translation: After sinking the US economy in a sea of credit, the Fed wants to ‘fix’ the problem with even more of the stuff.]

And it left the door open for more “extraordinary” measures to fight the economic enemy du jour: deflation.

Or in Fed speak… “The Federal Reserve will continue to consider ways of using its balance sheet to further support credit markets and economic activity.”

At this point, there are no real limitations on what “Helicopter Ben” might do in his crusade to fix the wounded economy.

He

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The Fed fires its last bullet…  Euro breaks back above $1.40…  AUD and NZD rally…  And Now… Today’s Pfennig!Good day… The ‘noise’ from the street which I wrote about yesterday turned out to be correct, as the FOMC cut 75 basis points to put the Fed Funds target at .25%. The US now has the lowest interest rates in the industrialized world, even below those in Japan. The dollar lost ground quickly after the announcement and continued to fall overnight to a 13 year low vs the yen and the weakest vs. the Euro in 4 months.

With both Chuck and Frank out of the office, I fielded the calls from reporters after the FOMC cut, and the most popular question asked was what the near zero interest rates would mean for the man on the street. Well it was great news for those on Wall Street, but I told the

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President-elect Barack Obama plans to renew America’s information superhighway. This means huge investments in the country’s broadband network. David Newman says there will be big profits for this tech ETF (IGN).

This from Sovereign Society:

We’ve just learned that President-elect Barack Obama’s economic team is considering an economic-stimulus program that will be far larger than the two-year, half-trillion-dollar plan under consideration last week.

Obama aides and advisers now say US$600 billion over two years is “a very low-end estimate”. The final number is expected to be significantly higher, possibly between $700 billion and $1 trillion over two years.

I wonder what the number will be next week…two trillion?

Today I want to talk about some of the other sectors that will benefit big when Obama is sworn in next month, and how you can benefit from one simple investment as this money begins flowing.

Obama said the package will include an initial tax

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The Federal Reserve used up almost all of its remaining conventional ammo today as it desperately tries to prevent the second Great Depression. The statement is below, along with the previous statement, and with my commentary interspersed."The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent."  "The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1 percent." Hard to believe that just six weeks ago the fed funds rate was at 1.50%. Now we are near zero. The use of a range is unusual and perhaps unprecedented. Then again, the fed funds rate has never been this low before, and at the low end of the range I can safely say that it is a record that will never be ...

Here is a great investment for you -- one where the price has zoomed to unheard-of levels in recent months, yet for which the natural heavy buyers have all the reason in the world, both from a desire and an ability-to-buy point of view, to stop buying. Furthermore, it is known that the supply of this investment will expand next year at a rate that has rarely been matched in history. As an added kicker, you know with certainty that cash flows from this investment will never go up. Sound good? So what is this fabulous gem of an investment? Why, good old-fashioned treasury securites. Lock your money up for 10 years and get the princely return of 2.72% -- heck if you are willing to lock in for 30 years you can get 3.15% today. Those rates are down from 3.78% just last month on the 10-year ...

By Senior Writer Eoin Gleeson Nov 19, 2008 Eoin Gleeson Jim Rogers

Rogers: buy commodities and China

If there’s one man who hasn’t been swept off his feet by the prospect of Barack Obama in the White House, it’s Jim Rogers. “Barack Obama has two policies to speak of,” he told attendants at the World Money Show in Westminster. First, he wants to tax capital, just when capital is at its weakest. And second, he wants to protect American jobs. Both ideas are absolutely disastrous, reckons Rogers.

You only have to look at the experience of Japan. The Japanese were determined to protect and prop up their faltering businesses in the nineties, but all it did was leave them with a load of zombie banks. All that happens when you tax capital to prop up failing businesses is that you take money from the competent and give it to the incompetent, says Rogers.

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Forget talk of a slump in gold, says Justice Litle. The precious metal is still on a long-term uptrend that started in 2001. And the “reflate at all costs” strategy of the Fed will eventually send gold soaring again as the world wakes up awash with dollars that it doesn’t want.

This from Taipan Daily:

Take a look at this long-term gold futures chart.

Stepping out to a longer-term chart is a bit like seeing the world from a higher altitude. As you head further out, the drama begins to recede. (From a far enough distance, the world is little more than a pale blue dot – as Carl Sagan liked to point out.)

So, too, with gold. There has been a lot of yellow metal angst in light of the recent credit implosion. But if we look back to

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