Siemens AG (SI) recently bought a 40% stake in Israel-based Areva Power Co. for $15 million. Areva develops, builds and operates photovoltaic plants. This is another significant step in strengthening green and sustainable technology initiative by Siemens. Due to intensive sunlight and steadily growing demand for energy, Israel is an ideal location for developing solar energy business.

It will now be possible for Siemens to build Israel’s first commercial solar farm in the region between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. The company will handle project management including engineering and construction of the photovoltaic plants. It has signed a framework agreement to build plants with a total output of 40 megawatts (MW). The first project will be construction of a plant with an output of up to 4.9 MW at Kibbutz Ketura, in the southern desert of Israel.

Areva Power was founded in 2006 and is headquartered

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Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) has posted impressive returns YTD (up over 16%), but last week’s correction, coupled with a recent report issued by Riyadh-based Samba Bank–which warned that the recovery of oil prices to above $60/barrel and a forecasted 24% increase in government spending will not be adequate to offset a sharp slowdown in private sector activity–raises concern.

The Bank asserted that while public spending in both oil and non-oil sectors has been robust, private investment, in contrast, remained tepid, constrained by lingering tougher lending standards due at least in part to poor export prospects, especially in petrochemicals (polyethylene prices are still down roughly 50% from their mid-2008 highs) and refined products, the country’s main exports after oil and natural gas. It added that the country’s GDP would contract by 1.2% in 2009 (following 4.5% growth last year), but predicted that growth would climb to 4.4%

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It came as no surprise to me that both gold got sold off a bit the moment that the gold market opened in the Far East on Monday morning. But it didn’t amount to much, because shortly after 2 p.m. in Hong Kong…1:00 a.m. Monday morning N.Y. time…gold began a slow rise that continued right through the London open. This lasted until the silver fix in London (noon) before selling off about ten bucks. But as soon as floor trading opened on the Comex in New York, the price rose…then spiked to its high of the day…before it was gently capped and then got slowly sold off until the end of Globex trading at 5:15 p.m. Eastern time.

Silver followed a similar route, but it got sold off shortly before the Comex opened…with the selloff continuing until about 8:30 a.m. in New York. From there it rose in fits and starts

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