Everything was swell in gold and silver when I went to bed early on Friday morning. I was hoping that when I got up four hours later, that both metals would be much higher in New York trading. They were…until 8:40 a.m…and that was that. From there, gold and silver basically closed on their lows of the day. And for whatever reason, gold was not allowed to close above $940 again. That’s the third day in a row. Silver however, closed above $14 by a magnificent seven cents!

From the start of the trading day on Friday morning in the Far East…and until noon in New York…the dollar lost about 70 basis points. And from the start of precious metals trading in the Far East, gold and silver basically rose as the dollar fell. That relationship ended almost as soon as the New York bullion banks showed up for work.

The lousy

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Everything was swell in gold and silver when I went to bed early on Friday morning. I was hoping that when I got up four hours later, that both metals would be much higher in New York trading. They were…until 8:40 a.m…and that was that. From there, gold and silver basically closed on their lows of the day. And for whatever reason, gold was not allowed to close above $940 again. That’s the third day in a row. Silver however, closed above $14 by a magnificent seven cents!

From the start of the trading day on Friday morning in the Far East…and until noon in New York…the dollar lost about 70 basis points. And from the start of precious metals trading in the Far East, gold and silver basically rose as the dollar fell. That relationship ended almost as soon as the New York bullion banks showed up for work.

The lousy

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The real estate market continues to be difficult and credit markets did not improve much in 2009. The adverse environment continues to affect Move (MOVE), which provides a wide range of real estate services through a family of websites.

The ongoing global financial crisis affecting the banking system and financial markets has resulted in a severe tightening in the credit markets, a low level of liquidity in many financial markets, and extreme volatility in credit and equity markets. This in turn has affected other industries in the economy. The U.S. residential real estate market is currently going through a significant downturn due to downward pressure on housing prices, credit constraints inhibiting home buyers and an exceptionally large inventory of unsold homes. This is the worst crisis that the industry has faced in decades and there seems to be no turnaround in the near future.

Amidst

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In early Tuesday trading in the Far East, gold didn’t do much of anything until shortly before 11:00 a.m. in the morning in Hong Kong. From that point, gold got sold off about $8 in an hour. Not a lot, but a pretty big move for the usually quiet Far East market. As it turned out, that was the low for world gold for the day. A quick retest of that price at 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong…and gold was on its way higher…and the US$ much lower. This lasted through London trading, but ran into the usual brick wall at the Comex open in New York. Once the London p.m. gold fix was in at 3:00 p.m. [10:00 a.m. in New York]…down went the price.

This didn’t last long, and minutes before London closed for the day, a rally began that lasted almost until the end of Comex trading…and

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The UpTurn Inc. is developing an innovative online real estate matchmaking exchange where residential real estate market participants are matched with each other based on their individual profiles and intended market roles. The UpTurn intends to serve all participants in the residential real estate market.

The website intends to be very user-friendly, allowing visitors to enter their interest and lifestyle requirements. The company then matches these users with buyers and sellers that meet their particular interests. Visitors will also be able to communicate with other members on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and view homes on Youtube and Flickr.

The company’s website is nearing completion and will then be ready to start generating revenues. The UpTurn’s founder and CEO, Jeffrey Eckman, has said that he expects the company will begin to generate revenues by September of this year and he thinks that the

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Both gold and silver got sold off gently in Far East trading on Wednesday. This slight downward trend lasted until shortly after 12:00 noon in London…and shortly before the Comex opened in New York. From there, rallies in both metals got hit hard the moment that the gold price broke through $960 and silver broke through $15 respectively. Strangely enough, this occurred about 12:05 Eastern time in both metals. From there, the selling pressure was on…and as of this writing, gold has given back $15…and silver about 35 cents. Silver’s chart is particularly interesting, as it was obvious that sellers had virtually vanished and the price was going parabolic before JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) showed up.

click to enlarge

The usual New York commentator had the following regarding yesterday’s trading…”Obviously the $960 level is being

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Insights from Jeremy Siegel: 3 Reasons Why The Dow Will Hit 10,000 in 2009

by Dr. Mark Skousen, Advisory Panelist

Wall Street has been debating the huge run-up in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Was March the beginning of a huge rally that will take the market to new highs? Have we witnessed the proverbial “dead-cat bounce?” The prognosticators have been unsure, uncertain and uncommittal about what they see coming next…

So let me make it clear where I stand: We are in the beginning of a new bull market that will carry us to 10,000 on the Dow by year’s-end - and new highs within a couple of years.

Yes, the recovery will be volatile. But now is the time to buy, despite the big run up…

No doubt there’s plenty of bad news out there - rising unemployment with no end in sight, threatened tax increases on capital gains

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /blockquoteJoke - How do you know when a country is in crisis? Well, on the buses on the way to work, and in the bars and cafes during the mid morning break, everyone is reading the economy rather than the sports section in the local newspaper./blockquoteSeveral pieces of news out over the last week are relevant to the whole debate we are having about how to drag the Estonian economy (kicking and screaming it would seem) out of its current slump. In the first place the Estonian parliament passed a supplementary 2009 budget at the start of the week, in an attempt to address the ongoing crisis in the economy and the dramatic decline in revenues. The cuts were approved by 61 votes to 35 against in what was also an effective vote of confidence in the present government. So at least it is clear ...

Home price indexes don't show many bright spots as 2008 ends up as the second-straight year of annual declines. 

 

More ugly real estate news came out Tuesday as the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index in December showed its largest quarterly fall in the 21-year history of the indexing series. 

The drop-off in the final quarter of 2008 by the benchmark – which covers all nine U.S. census divisions – represented an 18.2% decline from the same period a year ago. S&P reported that the 10-City and 20-City composite indexes also set new records, with annual declines of 19.2% and 18.5%, respectively.

With completed December data, S&P is now saying that domestic home prices have been falling nationwide for two straight years, covering 2007 and 2008. 

"The broad downturn in the residential real estate market continues,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s, in a statement. “There

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Home price indexes don't show many bright spots as 2008 ends up as the second straight year of annual declines. 

 

More ugly real estate news came out Tuesday as the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index in December showed its largest quarterly fall in the 21-year history of the indexing series. 

The drop-off in the final quarter of 2008 by the benchmark—which covers all nine U.S. census divisions—represented an 18.2% decline from the same period a year ago. S&P reported that the 10-City and 20-City composite indexes also set new records, with annual declines of 19.2% and 18.5%, respectively.

With completed December data, S&P is now saying that domestic home prices have been falling nationwide for two straight years, covering 2007 and 2008. 

"The broad downturn in the residential real estate market continues,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s, in a statement. “There are

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