With the United States market still in slump, businesses project difficulties in profit increase in the next 7 years. Job cuts continue in the US and the rate of job creation of 25 per year is not sufficient to offset job losses in the next 5 years. On the other side of the world, Indian outsourcing firms show an opposite trend. Global IT service providers such as Infosys which provides technical consulting, design and development of business solutions have been aggressively increasing their workforce. Last week, the company reported that in the second quarter it has hired 6,069 people offsetting the 4,521 employees it laid off in the same quarter. Tata Consultancy Service is also bullishly hiring with plans of hiring 25,000 people worldwide for this year 2009 and 90%

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From the first paragraph of my Saturday commentary…”I don’t know what it is about that [one hour and change] stretch of time between the Sydney close and the London open…but if there is going to be a down day…it starts right there a large percentage of the time.” Any questions? Actually, both gold and silver got sold off the moment that the New York bullion banks opened for business 6:00 p.m. on Sunday night…which is very early Monday morning in Far East trading. Shortly before 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, gold had almost made it back to unchanged…and silver was actually up a couple of cents when the hammer fell. The bottom for gold came very shortly after the London a.m. gold fix at 5:30 New York time…and in silver, shortly after the Comex open. The ‘rally’ in the US dollar that started at the same time as the precious

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Source: David and Eric Coffin, Hard Rock Advisory Journal  05/29/2009
The greatest economic realignment since Genghis Kahn took over Eurasia’s trade routes is continuing apace. The west remains mired in an assets contraction of its own making, and the east is refocused on channeling its growth engines into domestic consumption. The resource sector, which is our focus and which has been governed by those growth engines for a decade and half, is indicating at least the expectation of continuing gains in the east. That does not mean we ignore what is going on the developed west, plus Japan.

Most of the planned bad news on the US banking system is now on the table or at least anticipated, in some form. The stress test requirements for US banks at $75 billion of new capital required are workable, though heavily dilutive. There are legitimate doubts that this will actually be sufficient given …

As Paul Krugman recently pointed out, one of the central points they made in the latest IMF World Economic Outlook was that recessions caused by financial crises tend to get resolved on the back of export-lead booms, with countries normally emerging from the crisis with a positive trade balance of over 3 percent of GDP. The reason for this is simple, since consumers are so laden-down with debt from the boom period, they are naturally more obsessed with saving than borrowing during the initial crisis aftermath. So much then for the typical crisis, and the typical exit. But musing on this point lead Krugman to an additional, rather disturbing, conclusion: since the present financial crisis is truly global in its reach, the habitual exit route to recovery will only work after we are able to identify stronganother planet/strong to send all those exports to (shades of Startreck IV). The joke ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /blockquote"For what it’s worth, a key conclusion from the IMF’s new World Economic Outlook is that recessions caused by financial crisis typically end with export booms, with the trade balance improving,on average, by more than 3 percent of GDP. I find this a disturbing result: we’re now suffering from a global financial crisis, which means that the usual driver of recovery will only be available if we can find another planet to export to."br /a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/japans-recovery-again/"Paul Krugman /abr /br //blockquoteblockquoteWith results still coming in, projections show the United Progressive Alliance is likely to win about 250 seats, making it a shoo-in to form the next government and provide continuity, a stable administration and progress on key economic and corporate reforms.br /a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124247401653426893.html"Wall Street Journal/a, May 16 2009/blockquotebr /blockquotePrime Minister Manmohan Singh’s electoral victory, the biggest any Indian politician has scored in two decades, may ...

This coming Monday should turn out to be one of the most interesting opening bell’s as of late. A Lot of buyout rumours, Q10s being reported and amongst other things, we should get a more clear picture as to the progression of the US banking system.

Some of the companies I will be keeping a keen eye on:

SAY (Satyam Computer Services(ADR) - Full of scandals and allegations, this company may prove to be one of the cheapest discount assets to purchase within 2008. Over the weekend and into Monday, it is expected that several billionaire companies will be engaged in a bid to buy 51% of SAT, highest PPS wins. Satyam, one of India’s six largest IT outsourcing companies, counts such Fortune 500 companies as Sony among its customers.

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Karachi-based Habib Bank Ltd., Pakistan’s largest by the number of branches, reported an increase in revenue to 79.7 billion rupees from 60.5 billion rupees in the year ended Dec. 31, as well as a 54% rise in profit after higher lending and rising interest rates.  Shares of the company have risen 21.8% this year.  Pakistan’s central bank raised interest rates four times last year to the highest levels in Asia.  Moreover, lending expanded by just under 20% in 2008, led by demand from energy companies and textile manufacturers, according to CEO Zakir Mahmood.

Firm investment demand outweighs weak jewelery buying… Euro weakens on euro zone outlook… Oil prices tumble nearly 10 percent…

Gold swung into the black on Tuesday, rising more than 2 percent to a one-week high of $855.75 an ounce, amid market talk of a large order.

Firm investment demand for gold as a haven from risk is fueling buying of the precious metal, analysts said.

Spot gold was quoted at $853.00/855.00 an ounce at 1228 GMT, up from $834.55 late on Monday. Earlier it touched a low of $822.90, down more than 1 percent.

Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith said strong investor flows into products such as exchange-traded funds as investors sought more secure assets were offsetting weaker jewelery demand.

“People are slowly building long positions in gold and commodities more generally,” he said.

Gold managed shrugged off early weakness linked to a

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ust a week to go now before Barack Obama finally gets his feet under the Oval Office desk. Priority #1: Getting the much-discussed economic stimulus package pushed through Congress and approved.

Question is: Will the oft-dithering Congress actually take some action to enact this proposal? You can bet that the hallowed halls of the Capitol are buzzing with debate and counter-debate at the moment, but trying to get blustering lawmakers to agree on something requires the patience of a saint.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 3,000 miles away, where he made a speech at the London School of Economics today. I was struck by this tasty soundbyte:

“It is unacceptable that large firms, which government is now compelled to support in order to preserve financial stability were among the greatest risk-takers during the boom period… The existence of too-big-to-fail firms violates the presumption of a level playing field among financial institutions.”

Unacceptable,

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In this blog post, cited are Satyam Computer Services, Ltd. (SAY), Wipro (WIT), Infosys (INFY) and Nortel Networks Corp. (NT).In another blow to the struggling and beleaguered Satyam Computer Services, Ltd. (SAY), the Indian government announced earlier today that it would not step up to help Satyam with any financial assistance. We had indicated in our previous post that possibility exists for a government bailout, although there was no precedence in the Indian financial history of a bailout of such magnitude. It appears that the govt. rejection of a request by Satyam Computer Services Ltd. for financial assistance of 1.5 billion rupees ($30.8 million) to meet short-term payment needs puts the company in dire straits.It is also a clear indication that the company should not expect any financial support, either private or public, until the financial mess is sorted out ...