Stock Preacher

The world’s political and business leaders to meet more often to tackle the current economic problems

The world’s Political and Business leaders agreed at the Davos conference to come together more often to share the task of tackling the all the challenges of sinking consumer demand, to climate change.
Last weekend, the conference ended with no consensus on how to solve the world’s economic problems. The leaders are faced with a lack of confidence in western business, industry, and government, by people around the globe. In fact the it was reported in the Financial Times that the delegates “struggled to agree on a single answer to the crisis.”

It was reported that most executives agreed that more regulation was inevitable, but that the new regulations to be limited to, and designed to give business incentives to invest in the future and to stay focused on the consumer and on sustainable energy issues, and that more “collaboration” is necessary going forward.

Noting the theme of the 2008 forum: “The power of collaborative innovation”, contains much of what is required in theme of the 2009 forum, i.e. the shaping of the world, post financial crisis .
Lee McIntire, chief executive of CH2M Hill, an engineering and construction group, said: “Remember, we’re not always right at this conference. When I was here last year, what I kept thinking was, that if I could help my customers with water, energy and sustainability, I’d do really well profit-wise. . . The world has changed a lot since the last Davos forum.”

Trillions of US$s will have to be spent to bring confidence back into the system, thus bringing forth the question, where will this money come from?

Popularity: 11% [?]

This is what happened last week…

Last Tuesday began what the world community views as a major event in US history, the inauguration of Barack H. Obama as its 44th President and its 1st Black American President.
Some of President Obama’s executive orders on his 1st day in office:

1. A freeze on salaries for White House staff earning $100,000 or more, about 100 people in all.

2. New Freedom of Information Act rules, making it harder to keep the workings of government secret.

3. Tighter ethics rules governing when administration officials can work on issues on which they previously lobbied governmental agencies, and banning them from lobbying the Obama administration after leaving government service.

The week in the markets, however, continued to be bathed in the glow of uncertainty within the financial sector and coupled with Qs about the timing of the economic recovery.
Couple that with headlines announcing that China’s Y 2008 Q 4 GDP contracted from 9% to 6.8%, the UK reporting a GDP decline of 1.5%, the largest since 1980, US housing starts fell to their lowest level on record, and initial jobless claims returned to Christmas levels, matching the 26 yr. high of 589,000 set in December 2008.
Though Microsoft disappointed, IBM and AAPL rang the bell with GOOG beating too, and coming in better than expected.
Read more

Popularity: 25% [?]

Let’s have a look at the one of the Top 10 Gold Miners in the World (Number 3 in North America): Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) from a Technical POV (point of view).

The overall analysis after today’s market action is Bearish overall, in the near term it is Bearish, mid-term Neutral, and long term Very Bearish, this can change on any continuing strong upside action with good volume.

Today’s Action (November 13th, 2008)

KGC 11.41 -2.00 Volume13,697,493

There is a Gap Open Up on October 29, 2008 at (8.59 to 8.94); the near term resistance is 12.48, the 50 day moving average at 13.19, support 8.77 and next 6.85.

This is Kinross Gold Corporation: Kinross Gold likes Gold mining so much since prices have risen sharply that it has acquired three North American Gold miners Echo Bay Mines, Crown Resources, and Bema Gold. Those transactions made Kinross one of the world’s Top 10 Gold miners, raising its proved and probable reserves of 45MM ozs of Gold and another 75MM ozs of Silver. Nearly half of the company’s revenues come from its Fort Knox and Round Mountain properties in the USA. Kinross also has operations are located in Brazil, Chile, Russia, and Zimbabwe. Kinross bought Bema for about $3B b at the beginning of 2007 a deal that came on a wave of consolidation in the Gold mining industry.

Gold Demand: Strong domestic and international demand

Large economies of scale: Large

Kinross Gold Competitors

Barrick Gold, Toronto, Canada

Goldcorp, Vancouver, Canada

Newmont Mining, Denver, CO

Note: In the metals mining sector demand is driven by industrial demand and economic growth, both domestic and foreign. A company’s profitability depends on volume and efficient operations. Large companies like Kinross can afford to discover and develop new deposits and increase reserves. Small companies typically own just one mine, limit exploration to that one property, and operate it as efficiently as possible. Gold mining today is highly automated; annual revenue per employee is approx. US$300,000. The overall analysis after yesterday’s market action is Bearish overall, in the near term it is Neutral, mid-term Bearish and long term Bearish, this can change on any strong upside action with good volume.

Gold and Politics
On August 15, 1971, US President, Richard Nixon unilaterally canceled the Bretton Woods system and stopped the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. As a result, the U.S. dollar was decoupled from gold, and gold prices could fluctuate like any other commodity.

The data is limited when comparing the performance of Gold prices as they relate to the political affiliation of the President of the United States. There are some striking similarities between the performance of Gold prices during the great Gold bull market of the 1970s and today’s Gold bull market and how the Presidential political affiliation was and is tilted.

Popularity: 2% [?]