Finance Trends Letter

Always timely, always thought-provoking. Get a read on the week just ending and the weeks ahead with our, "Features of the week" . 1. Touradji rebounds, as Anderson's Ospraie Fund dives . 2. Goldman cuts Merrill to "sell" , sees new writedowns. 3. Thursday saw breakdowns in some of the major US stock indexes . 4. PIMCO cries out for taxpayer-funded bailouts and more government intervention in the markets. 5. BIS says the ABX index is overstating subprime RMBS losses . 6. Video: T. Boone Pickens sees oil going back over $150 within a year, and talks his book on wind and natural gas and the desired government subsidies. 7. Five things Republicans and Democrats won't tell you: Caroline Baum. 8. Looking for the next investment bubble : Matthew Lynn. 9. John Rubino compiles the best investment quotes of August 2008 . 10. Stock markets: a short history of boom and bust . 11. Marc Faber joins Bloomberg TV to talk oil, airlines, the economy, and the political p...

As mentioned in the comments section of yesterday's post , Dwight Anderson's flagship Ospraie Fund will be closed down following heavy losses suffered during the recent commodity plunge . More from Bloomberg : "Ospraie Management LLC, the investment firm run by Dwight Anderson , will close its biggest hedge fund after slumping 38.6 percent this year because of bad bets on commodity stocks. The New York-based Ospraie Fund fell 26.7 percent in August after a ``substantial sell-off'' in energy, mining and resource equity investments, Anderson said in a letter to investors yesterday." The hit to Ospraie is big news on a couple of levels. Dwight Anderson is one of the most highly regarded investment managers in the commodity hedge fund space, and Ospraie Management is one of its biggest players; at one time Ospraie was the largest commodity hedge fund, according to Bloomberg. Looking beyond the hit to Ospraie Fund and its investors, there is also a growing sense t...

It's back to business here in the US, as we finish this first stock trading session of the week following our Labor Day holiday. Let's survey the financial scene and see what's shaking as we head into a new trading week and the start of the fall season. Here are a few recent stories and market updates I've been keeping up with: 1. Investment Postcards offers up their latest global stock market performance round-up . 2. Bear Mountain Bull provides us with a Tuesday market wrap-up , and some thoughts on energy prices and the direction of some major market indices. 3. BusinessWeek anticipates the post-Labor Day market activity and highlights some important trends that are currently foremost in market participants' minds. 4. John Mauldin shared some thoughts on the credit markets and widening credit spreads this past weekend in a piece entitled, "Who Holds the Old Maid?" . 5. Red-Hot Resources offered up some charts of oil, gold, and the US dollar, along wit...

An ode to summer.   As a celebration of the season now ending, we bring you a little bit of surf, skate, and sun, California style.   Skateboard Kings is a 1978 documentary produced for the BBC television series, The World About Us (later known as the Natural World series). The program centers around the subculture of teenage surfers and skateboarders in Southern California and the development of the then-emerging national skateboarding industry.  Not only is the documentary a great source of period footage and a snapshot of American culture, it also begins as a sort of anthropological study of American teenagers, specifically the skateboarders of the well-known Venice "Dogtown" crew.  Dogtown skaters Tony Alva, Paul Constantineau, and Stacy Peralta are all seen here, and those who have seen the 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys will recognize some of the footage taken from this documentary (the Datsun pickup getaway scene, for one).  If you o...

Please enjoy our, "Features of the week" . 1. US Q2 GDP revised up to 3.3% on higher exports, spending. But is the BEA measuring growth or inflation ? 2. As the credit crisis continues , consumers will be forced to save. 3. Merrill losses wipe away longtime profits. 4. Credit crisis has produced some surprising winners and losers . 5. Derivatives law sheds light on the financial ripple effect. 6. Pressure mounts on Thailand's PM as protests spread. 7. Reports of Steve Jobs' death are greatly exaggerated. 8. Economist: Is farmland overvalued? 9. FT dopes out the long-term outlook for emerging markets . 10. China's tallest skyscraper meets surging office demand (video). 11. Skyscrapers and Business Cycles - Mark Thornton. 12. Cambodia is building up its economy and attracting investors. 13. Mark Mobius finds Vietnam's stock market attractive. 14. Brother, can you spare some gold coins? 15. "GSEs: too big to survive" , says Michael Pento. Thank...

Monday's notes regarding Jim Rogers' views on oil and commodity prices left us with a few questions about the state of the long-running commodity bull market. Here's how we left off Monday's post: "Did the recent, sharp summer correction in oil and resource prices mark the end of the 2000s commodity boom, or will the drop seen in leading commodity indexes such as the GSCI and CRB turn out to be a cyclical down move in a continuing, long-term bull market?" Today we're going to try and answer some of these questions, while also looking at the prospects for China's post-Olympics economy, since China's growth has played such a large role in fueling the rise in commodity prices this decade. First off, how is China's economy doing and what is the overall economic effect for a country hosting the Olympics? Historically, economic benefits to host countries have been small, and most observers would regard the national financial impact of an Olympi...

Jim Rogers is on record as saying that the rise in oil prices should continue over the coming decade. In a recent Bloomberg article , Rogers reiterated his call for higher oil and commodity prices over the next several years. "Investor Jim Rogers , who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, said Aug. 23 that crude oil prices will climb. ``Over the course of time, it's a bull market,'' Rogers, 65, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said after an investor conference in Kuala Lumpur. While oil could fall to $75 or rise to $175, prices will appreciate during the next 10 years, he said." Did the recent, sharp summer correction in oil and resource prices mark the end of the 2000s commodity boom, or will the drop seen in leading commodity indexes such as the GSCI and CRB turn out to be a cyclical down move in a continuing, long-term bull market? More on this to come.