A bias to buy dollars remains…Looks like coordinated jawboning…Fujii now talks about intervening! Gold remains below $1,000…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Terrific Tuesday to you! Well… Stop the presses… You know the presses that are talking about the countries that are on the docket to begin a rate hike cycle, because… Russia has thrown a cat among the pigeons this morning with a rate CUT… Let me tell you why this is a big deal…

Well, when everyone is thinking that the G0-GO countries of Norway, Australia, and Brazil will probably begin their rate hike cycles this year, and other won’t be far behind… While the U.S. drags its feet and wallows in the zero rate mud… The thinking was that the rate differentials to the dollar would begin to widen, causing even more pain for the dollar. And, the reason these countries were able to raise rates

No follow through on the Eurozone bond idea…  Mirror, mirror on the wall…  AIG to set record for losses…  And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Well… The Eurozone bond story that I brought to you yesterday failed to materialize yesterday, recall I told you that Germany was against the idea, and this failure to launch… Pushed the euro back down from the high 1.29 handle late Friday afternoon, to the 1.27 handle this morning… I see where the euro has rebounded back above 1.28 as I went through the explanation of Shrove Tuesday, so at least it shows a pulse every now and then!

The Risk Takers have crawled back under rocks and into the walls again, as Risk Aversion weighs heavily on the currencies… I saw a headline this morning that made me laugh out loud… Some writer believes that the “Dollar Is Best Looker in Ugly-Currency Parade”… Hmmm, apparently he didn’t

img src=”http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/5843/160/thinking.jpg”br /br /emfont color=”#0000FF”(P.S: Sorry for any disturbances the advertisements above may have caused you)/font/embr /I like reading the Review segment of the Straits Times because there are occasionally interesting analysis, and Andy Ho sometimes has interesting articles. This guy writes extensively on a variety of topics ranging from health to science to philosophy to political systems to economics … all of which interest me (save maybe for health). Saturday’s article in ST is the inspiration for this latest blog entry.br /br /I had read a book on chaos theory some years back, which is the subject of Andy Ho’s article, but had not really made the connection to stock market dynamics then, probably because my market experience then was not too extensive for me to make that connection. But some years later, on reading this article, it struck me how economic and stock market behaviour can be described …

Trading Theme returns…  Automakers’ bailout vote today…  Not using all your arrows…  Housing Starts go back to 1959! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

OK… Whew! What an awful day yesterday for the currencies… In the morning, they ere in rally mode with the euro gaining ground to well within the 1.27 handle. But then the Trading Theme set in, and those gains were wiped out. The Trading Theme was set off by the awful Housing data, which reminded everyone of the deep, dark , dangerous days ahead… I bought some euros, and watched them rise, and went off to do something else… When I returned, they had fallen… UGH! The Japanese yen, however, rallied, as is the case with the Trading Theme… Risk trades get unwound, which benefits dollars, and yen. I’ve explained all this before, so I won’t get into it again, but there’s someone that has gone into the problems

Currency Volatility!  Trading Theme creeps back!  ADP indicates a bad Jobs Jamboree…  Putting on my thinking cap…  And Now… Today’s Pfennig!Well… What a volatile day in the currencies yesterday (Wednesday)! WOW! Running up and down the dial, all day long! At one point yesterday morning, the euro looked to be in the driver’s seat, ooh, ooh, ooh ooh, driver’s seat, yeah… Stop it Chuck, this is supposed to be a serious commentary! Yeah right! Well, at least seriousness is sprinkled in from time to time, eh? Anyway… What I was getting at before slipping off into a song by Sniff-n-The Tears, the euro was moving higher and higher, and was making the 1.29 and 1.30 handles