Key News• Oil prices fell below $53 to almost a two-year low . (AP)• The yield on two-year US Treasury bonds hit a record low of 1.06 per cent, responding both to the fresh flight to safety and the prospect of lower interest rates. Eurozone government bond futures hit their highest level since March 2006. (FT)

• World stock markets tumbled Thursday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul losing almost 7 percent each. (AP)• Five years after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke helped stamp out the risk of deflation, the threat is returning as the financial crisis and a worsening economic slump pull inflation lower. (Bloomberg)• The RBA said in a monthly bulletin today that it bought A$3.15 billion ($2 billion) of its own currency last month, the biggest net purchase on record, as the local dollar posted a record monthly decline. • U.S. options

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China’s $585 billion spending package is equivalent to the U.S. spending nearly $3 trillion in fiscal stimulus. Massive? You bet it is! Inflationary? Absolutely! A boost to the entire global economy? YES! -- LarryChina unveils stimulus package as growth slowsProgram will spend more than $585 billion to jump-start economyNovember 10, 2008 (MarketWatch) -- China unveiled on Sunday what it described as a "massive" economic stimulus package in an effort to reverse slowing economic growth in the world's most populous country.China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, said that the program will "will loosen credit conditions, cut taxes and embark on a massive infrastructure spending program in a wide-ranging effort to offset adverse global economic conditions by boosting domestic demand."The package is valued at about 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion), to be spent over the next two years.Resource stocks on fire as

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Overseas markets surged early Tuesday as government-backed bank-bailout plans in the United States, Europe and Japan persuaded investors to jump back into stocks.

Key News• Asian central banks on Thursday joined their western counterparts in co-ordinated cuts to interest rates in an effort to curb the risk of the credit crisis sparking a severe global recession. (FT)• Japan said on Thursday it would consider any request from South Korea for assistance, after the Korean won sank to a 10-1/2-year low, but a spokesman said Seoul had not yet asked for Asian crisis talks. US Economic Events (WSJ):8:30a.m. Initial Jobless Claims For Oct 4 Week: Expected: -22K. Previous: +1K. 10:00a.m. Aug Wholesale Trade: Previous: +1.4%. 10:00a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer For Sep 27: Previous: -0.3%.

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    Casey StengelFX Trading – Can it be this simple?

As the stock market goes, so goes the euro against the US dollar.  Can

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Key News• Asian central banks on Thursday joined their western counterparts in co-ordinated cuts to interest rates in an effort to curb the risk of the credit crisis sparking a severe global recession. (FT)• Japan said on Thursday it would consider any request from South Korea for assistance, after the Korean won sank to a 10-1/2-year low, but a spokesman said Seoul had not yet asked for Asian crisis talks. US Economic Events (WSJ):8:30a.m. Initial Jobless Claims For Oct 4 Week: Expected: -22K. Previous: +1K. 10:00a.m. Aug Wholesale Trade: Previous: +1.4%. 10:00a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer For Sep 27: Previous: -0.3%.

Quotable “Been in this game one-hundred years, but I see new ways to lose 'em I never knew existed before.”

    Casey StengelFX Trading – Can it be this simple?

As the stock market goes, so goes the euro against the US dollar.  Can

...

Key News• Asian central banks on Thursday joined their western counterparts in co-ordinated cuts to interest rates in an effort to curb the risk of the credit crisis sparking a severe global recession. (FT)• Japan said on Thursday it would consider any request from South Korea for assistance, after the Korean won sank to a 10-1/2-year low, but a spokesman said Seoul had not yet asked for Asian crisis talks. US Economic Events (WSJ):8:30a.m. Initial Jobless Claims For Oct 4 Week: Expected: -22K. Previous: +1K. 10:00a.m. Aug Wholesale Trade: Previous: +1.4%. 10:00a.m. DJ-BTMU Business Barometer For Sep 27: Previous: -0.3%.

Quotable “Been in this game one-hundred years, but I see new ways to lose 'em I never knew existed before.”

    Casey StengelFX Trading – Can it be this simple?

As the stock market goes, so goes the euro against the US dollar.  Can

...

South Korea’s economy grew at its slowest pace in more than three years in the first quarter of 2008 as domestic demand cooled, increasing the prospects of a near-term rate cut by the central bank. The economy expanded 0.7 per cent from the previous quarter, when it grew 1.6 per cent, the Bank of Korea said on Friday. Year on year, growth was 5.7 per cent, euqal to the rate in the previous quarter. Rising fuel costs combined with a deteriorating outlook for exports prompted companies to reduce investment, while record household debt is sapping consumer buying power.The near-term outlook does not seem to be too positive with the government expecting exports, which constitute 40 per cent of GDP in what is Asia’s fourth-largest economy, to slow in coming months as the global economy cools.Domestic demand, which includes private and corporate ...

South Korea's central bank kept its interest-rate policy unchanged for a seventh month today, citing increasing inflation pressures and the deteriorating global economic outlook. Governor Lee Seong Tae set the seven-day repurchase rate at 5 percent. The yield on South Korea's five-year government bond rose 4 basis points to 5.09 percent, reversing an earlier decline. The won traded at 957.50 per dollar at close of onshore trading in Seoul, little changed from before the decision and posting its biggest weekly loss in seven months. The main Kospi index of shares slumped 2 percent to 1,663.97. Consumer prices rose 3.9 percent in January from a year earlier, the fastest pace in more than three years. Inflation slowed to 3.6 percent in February. The Bank of Korea in December forecast consumer prices to rise 3.3 percent this year. Export ...

South Korea’s incoming government is planning a huge bail-out covering 7.2m consumer debtors behind on loan repayments or with poor credit ratings in an effort to spur consumption and prevent a repeat of a 2004 consumer credit crisis.President-elect Lee Myung-bak, an ex-Hyundai executive, promised help for consumer debtors during the campaign leading up to last month’s presidential election. Economists have warned that South Korean households and small companies are facing a growing risk of default amid rising interest rates and a credit squeeze at the country’s banks.But South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Commission, took things a step forward on Thursday when it outlined a bail-out plan to Mr Lee’s transition team.Under the plan, credit delinquents with a small amount of debt will have their interest payments reduced and repayment deadlines extended. Their credit records will also be cleared.Chang Su-man, ...

South Korea's consumer confidence declined from a five-year high, signaling spending may slow and crimp growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy. The sentiment index fell to 106 in the fourth quarter, the lowest in three quarters, from 112, the Bank of Korea said today in a report in Seoul. A reading higher than 100 indicates optimists outnumber pessimists. The benchmark Kospi index of stocks has fallen 8 percent from a Nov. 1 record of 2085.45 on concern U.S. subprime-related losses will slow the global economy. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. this month cut its 2008 growth forecast for South Korea to 4.6 percent from 4.7 percent. The yield on a five-year government bond rose 2 basis points to 5.87 percent at 3:00 p.m. in Seoul and the won gained 0.1 percent to 939.65 versus the dollar. The Kospi climbed 2.2 percent. Confidence fell as ...