Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » Reykjavik

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – April 20, 2009

Robert Amsterdam — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:01:41 +0000

TODAY: Medvedev the latest to criticize NATO exercises; perseverance required in nuclear talks; budget revenues may fall short; one million temporary jobs to be created; London's Speakers Corner 'cool' President Medvedev has spoken out against the NATO war games to...

And Then There’s This…Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Contrarian Profits — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:35:02 +0000

pGold started off early morning Far East trading on Wednesday as it usually does lately#8230;going into a slow decline. And, as usual, at 3:00 a.m#8230;shortly before the London open#8230;the price began to rise, this time sharply. But it was all for naught once again, as someone was there to sell gold hard the moment that the London a.m. fix was in. The decline lasted for the rest of the London session#8230;through the Comex open#8230;and only reversed at the close of London trading at 4:00 p.m#8230;.11:00 a.m. New York time. However, this attempted rally was not allowed to amount to much, but gold did close the Globex session about eight dollars above its lows./p tr a href="javascript:openKKCImage('1232626120-gold15.gif',635,405);"/a /tr tr a style="text-decoration: none;" href="javascript:openKKCImage('1232626120-gold15.gif',635,405);"emclick to enlarge/em/a /tr pSilver was far more volatile. The#8230;/p

Friday Randoms

Roger Nusbaum — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:18:00 +0000

This a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008528983_icefish17.html?syndication=rss"article about the fishing industry/a in Iceland made its way into many newspapers yesterday. Apparently there is a boom in fishing, the Icelanders have not over-fished their waters and the weak ISK helps when they sell the fish abroad.br /br /Iceland will recover at some point although it may look different that it did. If you read anything about the ascendancy of Iceland that occurred you will invariably find a comment about Range Rovers driving through the streets of Reykjavik and having been there for a few days a couple of years ago I can tell you it is true; Range Rovers and BMWs aplenty. Or it was true anyway.br /br /While I don't know how they should do this I think they need to really push to draw in more things like data centers and certain types of manufacturing that would benefit from the geothermal energy. The cost efficiencies are obvious and the location (five hours from NYC and three hours from the European continent would seem to be ideal for many multinational businesses.br /br /While the move up in foreign currencies and gold has been pronounced and I think it is the right direction for a while it will not be a straight shot up. If you are interested in these parts of the market (they are now all easily accessed) for a longer term hold you should remember that nothing can be a one way trade but the bigger macro is that rates in the US are at zero and going to stay there for a long time. Gold at $1500 is a bigger move than I would expect but a move that ends up looking pretty good seems reasonable even if the next $50 is down.br /br /Speaking of which, sort of, the crew over at a href="http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/"Bespoke/a noticed that gold and platinum are trading at about the same level which is a rare thing. A long/short pair trade involving gold and platinum (there are several ETPs to access platinum) is popular with some folks. Someone left a question about what absolute products I use and while a pairing of gold and platinum is not in my wheelhouse that is one that does work for some folks. Anyone just starting learn about absolute strategies and who has a knack for commodities might want to do some learning about that one.

And Then There’s This…Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Contrarian Profits — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:22:58 +0000

pTuesday was the third day in a row that gold and silver got sold off as soon as trading began in the Far East#8230;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#8230;and a ferocious $25 rally (tech funds?) got stopped dead in its tracks at precisely 9:00 a.m. Eastern time#8230;the second day in a row it didn#8217;t get past $830 the ounce. Silver#8217;s fate was similar. Both sold off from there and both finished basically unchanged from Monday. The HUI traded as low as 218#8230;but managed to tack a 5% gain onto that number to close in slightly positive territory#8230;/p

Iceland Gets $11 Billion Bailout

Contrarian Profits — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:36:19 +0000

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…

Sorting Through The Rubble

Roger Nusbaum — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:18:00 +0000

In my usual weekend reading routine I came across this article in the NY Times profiling the plight of several Icelanders including a coffee house owner in Iceland trying to keep her business, Kaffitar, afloat.

One problem Kaffitar is having is getting suppliers to conduct business with it. At some point in the process someone has to buy Icelandic kronas to complete the transaction and no one is willing to do that.

Another problem is that Kaffitar borrowed money in euros for expansion. The monthly payment used to be ISK 120 million but now it is ISK 200 million after the collapse of the currency. What would a 66% increase in your mortgage do to you? This is happening to many businesses in Iceland.

When Joellyn and I were in Reykjavik in July 2006 there was a Kaffitar a couple of doors down from where we stayed. They make a hell of a soy mocha and had great bagels and pastry.

Reading that reminded me of this article from Bloomberg in October that featured an interview with Arni Einarsson who is the manager of the Room With A View Hotel in Reykjavik which is where we stayed when we went. It really is a small country.

The house pictured above is for sale about and is an hour east of Reykjavik in Reykholt. The seller is asking €135,000 negotiable which works out to $171,000. I'm thinking it might be available for a whole lot less. Even if this one isn't available for less many others are.

The second picture is a view from the deck of the neighbors and off to the left is where I think the town is. According to the listing the town, which has 100-200 people, has a supermarket, pub and restaurant.

I'm not sure how far it is if you need a dentist or need to get your transmission worked on--maybe over to Selfoss which is 30k away or if need be Reykjavik is an hour away.

One interesting thing, but not unusual for Iceland, is that the home heating is free. One word; geothermal.

I'm not suggesting anyone buy a house in Iceland. The point is that like many assets all things Iceland are now much, much cheaper than they were, there seems to be no near term solution at hand but it is also true there is less risk after the collapse. The Icelandic countryside will not disappear if Iceland defaults on its debt, or needs more bailout money or the krona drops a lot more. I also believe that at some point free heat from geothermal pays off for the country in attracting manufacturing to set up shop.

This general outline applies to many other types of investments these days. Down a lot, no clarity on how low it goes, some sort of redeeming value that cannot go to zero and something to look forward to in the future.

This is not a call to buy them with both hands but to step back and remember there is less risk in the stock market after a 40% drop. Any given stock might be a different story. If you were lucky enough to raise cash early on, be smart enough now to recognize that fear might exceed reality. If you think that is a crazy thought then I would submit that you have the wrong asset allocation which has caused you to have a big emotional reaction.

Four Ways to Sidestep the Damage Wall Street’s Big Money Movers are Inflicting on Main Street

Keith Fitz-Gerald — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:00:22 +0000

By Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director Money Morning/The Money Map Report As the worst financial crisis in recorded market history rocks Wall Street, millions of investors on Main Street... Money Morning is here to help investors profit hands...

Grigory Pasko: A Letter from Iceland, Part 2

Robert Amsterdam — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:03:40 +0000

See Pasko's first dispatch from Iceland here. Descendants of the Vikings or Political Correctness in Iceland Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. On 5 October of this year in Reykjavik one Icelandic newspaper took from me an interview. On that same day telejournalists also took an interview, having promised to put it on the air the next day. On the next day, the 6th, the interview came out in the paper, but was not shown on television. On that same day, the 6th of October, two more newspapers took interviews. And promised to publish them on the 7th. And on that same day, but later in time than when the interviews had taken place, it became known that Russia would supposedly allocate 4 billion euros to Iceland in the capacity of financial aid for overcoming a crisis. Neither on the 7th, or the 8th, or the 9th of October were the interviews published. Nor did television show air the interview with me. Representatives of the Icelandic branch of Amnesty International, the organization that had invited me to Iceland, were unable to ascertain the reasons for such censorship.

Iceland Gets Left Out in the Cold

Robert Amsterdam — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:31:22 +0000

One of the biggest problems with the United States becoming a debtor nation instead of a creditor is that we really lose any ability to help out our valued friends in times of trouble. As such, the banking crisis in Iceland has forced the government to turn to Russia - who is happy to throw some of its excess liquidity toward the relatively stable instruments of the country in the form of a $5.4 billion loan. Reykjavik is really not all that happy about it, and seems to display some awareness that this is exactly the kind of deal that can end up outsourcing your Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Kremlin oversight just like Finland. Prime Minister Geir Haarde tells the Financial Times, "We have not received the kind of support that we were requesting from our friends. So in a situation like that one has to look for new friends. (...) In a situation like this it’s turning out that it’s every man for himself, every country for itself, everybody’s taking care of their best interest and that’s what we are doing." Chris Weafer tells the FT that this loan is much more than an ordinary transaction, as it symbolizes both a clear statement that Russia still has extra cash and will look forward to enjoying support from Iceland on future territorial claims in the Arctic. James Beadle of Pilgrim Asset Management tells the New York Times that "It’s a P.R. stunt to reassert Russia’s position in the global economy of the 21st century." I believe that this loan demonstrates that Russia continues to have a very good understanding of what Walter Russell Mead would call "sticky power," and it would do Washington very well to remember how much this financial crisis is costing the United States in terms of its relationships with key allies.