Thread: Dollar Heads for Worst Quarter Versus Euro in More Than 2 Years

Teknobucks. A number of excellent information posts. Very diverse info. :^Thanks

your welcome!

teknobucks wrote:

so much for that strong dollar....LOL



http://tinyurl.com/6ajr3

http://tinyurl.com/3byhg

toasted greenbacks!

U.S. stocks trade lower as dollar falls to new lows
Monday December 27, 3:28 pm ET
By Susan Lerner

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Stocks continued to see red Monday afternoon as the dollar tumbled to new record lows against the euro with little news to inspire more buying after big gains last week.

"I think we're stuck with a fairly thin market that isn't going to move terribly much either way," said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates, who expects stocks will drift on low volume.

"I would be very surprised to see any discernible trend this week," he said.

Even a sharp decline in crude futures, generally a catalyst for stocks, was little help for equities. With the heavy volatility in crude over the past month and a half, Nolte believes crude is now just becoming a constant in the background.

Crude-oil futures dropped almost 7 percent, sending the benchmark contract to its lowest level in nearly four months. Crude for February delivery ended down $2.86 at $41.32 a barrel. See Futures Movers.

At last check, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI - News) was down 11 points to 10,816 after rising as high as 10,868 in early trade, while the Nasdaq Composite Index (NasdaqSC:^IXIC - News) fell 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,158 and the S&P 500 (CBOE:^SPX - News) slipped 1 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,208.

The dollar was off 0.7 percent vs. the euro at $1.3615, after setting a new record low of $1.3638 in earlier trades. The dollar was last down 0.5 percent against the Japanese yen at 103.01. See Currencies.

Bonds followed the dollar lower. The benchmark 10-year note plunged 18/32 to 99 22/32 to yield 4.29 percent.

Strategists weren't very concerned about the market's decline, given the fact that the week between the holidays is traditionally a positive one for stocks.

"Historical factors all fit in very well this year with what appears to be an accelerating economic growth rate here in the final month or two of the year," said Kenneth Tower, chief market strategist for CyberTrader. "There just seems to be a quickening pace of the economic expansion after slowing down for much of the year."

Tower attributed much of that acceleration to the lower price of crude.

Decliners outnumbered advancers by an 18 to 13 margin on the New York Stock Exchange and 17 to 13 on the Nasdaq in thin trade. Volume was a slim 645 million shares on the Big Board and 1.3 billion on the Nasdaq.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE - News) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT - News) were the best performers on the Dow while blue chips, while ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM - News) sported the biggest blue chip decline.

By sector, airlines, gold, Internet and pharmaceuticals were on the rise. Oil services, integrated oil, semiconductors and natural gas were moving lower.

Gold futures shot up $3.30 to close at $446.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange - their best close since Dec. 7. See Metals Stocks.

In addition to the traditional seasonal strength, CyberTrader's Tower said other factors were expected to help to keep the year-end rally going.

"Historical factors all fit in very well this year with what appears to be an accelerating economic growth rate here in the final month or two of the year. ... There just seems to be a quickening pace of the economic expansion after slowing down for much of the year," he added.

Retailers were in the spotlight as Wall Street assessed holiday sales results.

The numbers weren't good for Sharper Image (NasdaqNM:SHRP - News) , which lowered its outlook for the fourth quarter and fiscal year, citing weak holiday sales. The stock tumbled more than 18 percent.

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT - News) , however, added 1.1 percent after it said it expects same-store sales in the United States to rise in the middle of its 1 percent to 3 percent range for December. The world's largest retailer indicated that sales for Sunday, the day after Christmas, were above expectations.

Also, Amazon.com (NasdaqNM:AMZN - News) spiked 9.6 percent after it called the 2004 holiday season its "best ever," with the online retailer setting a record of more than 2.8 million units ordered in a single day.

Elsewhere, Sirius Satellite (NasdaqNM:SIRI - News) was the most actively traded stock on the Nasdaq, rising 3.9 percent on volume of more than 92 million shares after the company said it passed its year-end target of 1 million subscribers.
Quake effects

A devastating 9.0 earthquake in South and Southeast Asia that unleashed a series of tsunamis, which have resulted in at least 22,000 deaths, appeared to have little impact on insurers and the travel sector, but shares of Four Seasons (NYSE:FS - News) dropped as much as 2 percent after Smith Barney said the hotel operator's earnings from the region could be impacted by the disaster, with the possibility that eight of the 15 hotels the company manages in the region could be affected.

"The Asia-Pacific region represented 12 percent to 13 percent of Four Seasons' management fee revenue," the broker told clients. "Based on locations, we estimate that about 5 percent of total fee revenue could be impacted."

Interesting thoughts concerning the dollar.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0110/162_print.html

Preparatory measures taken to sell oil in euros


Dec. 2 (MNA) - The Chairman of the Majlis Energy Commission, Kamal Daneshyar said here, on Friday, that preparatory measures have been taken to sell oil in euros instead of dollar, adding that such a measure is quite positive and should be taken as soon as possible.]

http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=260851

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This news will turn out to be either very negative for the dollar or negative for U.S. soldiers in uniform. Your guess is as good as mine.

Someone also mentioned to me that Merrill Lynch put out a Morning Call Note indicating that in 2006 we will see the dollar go down significantly compared to the Euro. A prediction was made that the Euro would strengthen back to 1.30.

Neither of these announcements will be dollar positive. Invest accordingly.

Hmmm, when Tekno was around he posted some interesting things and obscure sites as well.

As Sgt. Schultz would say, "Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting."

I saw another related article on that web site about the privatization of a world currency ... similar to the Fed "work" here. It says it could come about by combining the Euro and the dollar. It also mentionsthe consequences of such a thing.

I thought it was interesting.

My personal opinion for the reason we invaded Iraq is that Iraq was openly conversing about switching out of the dollar and in to the Euro, as it related to their oil sales.

Now, Iraq is doing the same thing. I'm grabbing a bag of popcorn...this is going to besome show. I'm glad I'm not draft age.

Whimpy,

If you were draft age I presume you'd be buying a ticket to Toronto. I don't mean to be presumptuous, of course everyone has their own personal opinions. But you apparently wouldn't be alone waiting in Canada for Hillary to offer up amnesty like stank Jimmy did. Iraq has nothing to do with oil or currency trades - they are presently buying loads of wheat from us.

Simmer down boys. Lets re-group and stick to the issues. Money MOney and MO money

Jovarn,

Thou has a tendency to protest too much - brings out my Medusa parnoia - if you know what I mean? I know I'm virtually surrounded, I'll eventually have to wire my longtime friend Palladin for the imminent rescue. He's the redeemer.

Dennis