Anthony Davian submits: By Philip DunhamGoldAfter falling from around 1,065 in late October, gold prices surged, flirting with 1,100 due to news the Reserve Bank of India purchased 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF. Open interest increased by 35,649. Producers/consumers increased long positions by 5,290, shorts by 9,360. Swap dealers increased longs by 879, shorts by 3,506. Managed Money increased longs most substantially, by 15,057 and shorts by 2,269. Non reportable traders reduced both long and shorts positions, each by roughly 16,500. Technically, prices are again in overbought territory for the third time since November. In addition, volume has been decreasing. Gold is overdue for a correction and silver may provide further confirmation. That said, gold will be more resilient than silver when a correction materializes.Complete Story »

  Mark O'Byrne submits:GoldGold is currently trading at $1,102/oz. In EUR and GBP terms gold is trading at €735/oz and £661/oz respectively.Complete Story »

  In their Q2 earnings reports earlier this year, major International Oil Companies, IOCs, presented large earnings decline despite the doubling of global crude oil prices between Q1 and Q2. In their Q3 reports, earnings also declined significantly in spite of the spike in crude oil prices. In both cases, weak demand was the principal culprit and according to Anglo Dutch Shell (RDS.A), a quick recovery is not in sight.Global crude oil inventories have been high, in addition, an estimated 125 million barrels of crude oil and fuels are held in unconventional (eg floating) storage around the world. Normally, only a negligible quantity is held in such storage. With such high stockpiles, global demand has been expectedly weak, reportedly falling by 1.6% and 1.7% in July and August 2009 respectively while showing an annual decline rate (in countries making up 70% of world demand) of 2%.Complete Story »

  Bob van der Valk submits: The U.S. and Canadian major oil companies will be drowning in crude oil by the end of this year if they keep operating at their current rates. They are already swimming in crude oil and finished products inventories with refineries running at an acceptable economic level of efficiency. U.S. and Canadian oil refineries will be reducing overall inventories between now and the end of the year for Last In/First Out (LIFO) accounting purposes. As of late, crude oil trading has been a virtual skating rink, where every 15 minutes the announcer comes on and says to reverse direction. On the other hand gasoline refining is like NASCAR racing with speeding cars going around the track as fast as they can. Complete Story »

  Andy Beal submits: I’ve decided that I really don’t need as many of you coming to Marketing Pilgrim each day. In fact, I’ve decided to start charging for the content that we publish.Complete Story »

  Zacks.com submits: Morgan Stanley (MS) is pursuing a buyer to sell its 34% stake that it holds in investment bank China International Capital Corporation (CICC).Morgan Stanley’s role in CICC has been reduced to that of a passive investor, prompting the case for disinvestment. Morgan Stanley received approval from Chinese regulators early last year to sell its stake in CICC. However, it then did not opt for the disinvestment as the bids were very low at that time. As the markets have now bounced back, the company now wants to revisit the deal.Complete Story »

  What if Obama had really gone forward with his program to rebuild America’s infrastructure that was a major part of the original stimulus package, but somehow largely got derailed? What if, instead of paying and then rolling over most unemployment benefits, the administration had adopted a Work Projects Administration (WPA) type of program to employ such welfare recipients and implement rebuilding America’s infrastructure under the stimulus program, largely along the lines of what was originally planned. I think the answer pretty clearly is we would be better off regarding unemployment then we are now. I suspect, however, that many of the funds targeted for new jobs and infrastructure repair went to the states to avoid governmental layoffs and to stimulus funding of Democratic pet programs, but I am not sure. It is quite difficult to get good information about what happened to the infrastructure rebuilding program. But as Peter Morici reports, now only about $100 billion of the $759 billion stimulus package is slated for brick and mortar programs. Infastructure rebuilding is not only proceeding too slowing, it has been largely gutted by the Administration.Complete Story »

  Zacks.com submits: ON Semiconductor (ONNN) reported second quarter earnings that beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4 cents. Revenue by End MarketComplete Story »

  Zacks.com submits: Amdocs Limited (DOX) declared better-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. Total revenue of $707.4 million was down 14.3% year-over-year but well above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $681 million. The company said its revenue from its managed services business together with cable and satellite businesses have started to stabilize. Quarterly net income on a GAAP basis was $85.8 million or 42 cents per share, compared to net income of $82.7 million or 38 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. However, fourth quarter adjusted (excluding special items) EPS was 49 cents, significantly above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 45 cents. This was primarily due to a continuous effort taken by management to streamline the cost structure.Complete Story »

  Mathew Ingram submits: Rupert Murdoch, that sly old rascal, caused a minor Twitter-storm recently, with an interview in which he suggested that News Corp. (NWS) might remove its websites from Google (GOOG), which he has described in the past as a “thief” that takes content without asking (Google, for its part, said that it would be more than happy to oblige Rupert’s whims in this regard). As Mike Masnick at Techdirt also noted, Murdoch even went so far as to argue that “fair use” principles were likely illegal, and would eventually be proven so. You have to give the guy credit for knowing a soundbite when he sees one. Mark Cuban, another crusty old billionaire (although just a pup compared to Rupe), used these remarks as a jumping-off point for his own flight of rhetorical fancy, in which he argued that social-recommendation networks such as Twitter and Facebook were far more important than Google, and that therefore Rupert was right and all the “information-must-be-free bigots” who criticized him must be wrong. But as Steve Rhodes (@tigerbeat) pointed out on Twitter after I posted a link to Cuban’s rant, all the social-recommendations in the world aren’t going to help Rupert if he insists on putting his content behind pay walls.Complete Story »

  Jason Schwarz submits:Google (GOOG) is looking to grow through acquisitions. Is this good news for investors? Let me offer up a sports analogy. In baseball, the lifeblood of a franchise is the minor league farm system. Producing your own talent produces a success that is more sure than trying to build a winner through free agency. Once every ten years the Yankees might win a World Series with a team built through free agency but I’ll show you example after example of how a team with a solid farm system outperforms. Growth through acquisition is akin to a baseball team that abandons their farm system. Google management is sucking the life out of their R&D team each time they purchase a Youtube or an AdMob. Employees who innovate at Google might get used to the new growth through acquisition model and come to expect it. It doesn’t seem like working R&D at Google is as appealing as it once was. Complete Story »

  Mark Evans submits: As Nortel (NRTLQ.PK) edges toward oblivion, people are starting to think about life post-Nortel. What will Canada’s high-tech sector be like without thousands of high-paying employees? What will life be like for thousands of pensioners whose benefits are shrinking or disappearing? How will Canada’s R&D activity be impacted? Another interesting issue is whether Nortel’s demise will have a major effect on Canada’s start-up landscape. In Canada – and probably many countries around the world – one of the great offshoots has been Nortel employees who have left the fold to create their own start-ups. Armed with experience and expertise, these entrepreneurs have played a key role in fueling the start-up landscape, even though they might not get the attention that highlights their time with Nortel.Complete Story »

  Brandon Matthews submits: By Brandon MatthewsFor most of the past year, investors in Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) have been forced to become a bit more sophisticated. Until recently, Sirius XM was truly a speculative stock play. Battle lines were drawn between people who bought shares of the company out of a belief in the product and self proclaimed experts with no belief in the company’s long term viability. Satellite Radio has existed for years with its believers having one goal in mind: The goal that cash flow break-even would occur and growth would ensue. That goal was to be attained when the subscriber rolls surpassed 1 million. Then 2 million. Then 5 million. Always being pushed farther and farther away as round after round of equity dilution came and went. Many had given up.Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Although not as impressive as the stock market’s gains since March 9, in the last year Bbb-rated companies have returned 38%. So the next question becomes: what do we expect those bonds and related ETFs to do next?Investment-grade corporate bonds may have lagged the overall broad market’s gains, but from a bond standpoint, their performance has been outstanding. Jeffrey R. Kodnett for Kiplinger asks what can be expected from single-A to triple-B bonds.Complete Story »