Joining Anglo American and Kinder Morgan (KMI), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) announced the full suspension of its dividend. The clustered nature of these announcements only create questions about what might have changed recently, a possibility which actually holds very little mystery. After all, the company’s stock price has been falling steadily since about December 2010 (trading at about $60) so that surely…
Instead of a flat at 1.5050, the sellers sent the GBP rate to 1.4956. The pound ended up defenseless before the BoE meeting and due to the unexpected fall in production in the manufacturing industry. The pound/dollar rate fell by 76% from a growth from 1.4894 to 1.5158. According to the daily formation, such a…
Peter Schiff got right to the point with Alex Jones last week: Obama is just trying to finish out his term without any major disasters. At this point, Peter thinks the Federal Reserve just might raise interest rates a hair this month, but then immediately lower them again when it becomes clear the economy is…
With the holidays fast approaching, many traders are winding down their trading activity. Not me. I’m actually planning to trade as much as I can during the holidays, partly because my Christmas shopping bill is getting bigger and bigger by the day! In all seriousness, holiday trading can be a worthwhile endeavor if you have…
The merger between Halliburton HAL and Baker Hughes BHI has been the talk of the oilfield services industry. However, the transaction is not a layup. It has garnered major scrutiny from the DOJ, faces regulatory hurdles down under and required assets sales have yet to be announced. Despite all the hoopla, Halliburton is still suffering…
Following last night’s unexpected inventory draw reported by API, DOE reported an even bigger draw of 3.568 million barrel (against expectations of a 1.3mm barrel build). The biggest draw in almost 4 months sent crude surging back to $39. Cushing continues to fill up, with a 423k build – the 5th week in a row. Production dropped the…
The second round of French regional elections will be held this weekend. The first round last weekend saw the National Front do best in terms of popular votes and led in six of the twelve regions. The National Front is not simply anti-austerity, but it is anti-EMU. In regions that NF garnered more than 40% of the vote, the Socialists have withdrawn…
It seemed like only yesterday – it was 2011, in fact – that the International Energy Agency (IEA) published a report on the bright future of natural gas. Titled Are We Entering a Golden Age of Gas?, the report said how great everything looked for gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) thanks to soaring Asian demand for…
With the “positive” jobs report that came out last Friday, most analysts now think the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month. Peter Schiff argues that the jobs report wasn’t really that positive considering the labor participation rate and the number of part-time workers. But he concedes that the rate hike may happen anyway,…
Next week we’d learn whether the Fed indeed gives us a December rate hike. Let’s take a close look at US Treasuries a week in advance of that decision. The yield on the 10-year note ended the day on yesterday at 2.24%, which is at the higher end of the year-to-date range of 1.68% to…
