Other Stockmarket News

Gold in a Bear Market

It is a bear season in the stockmarket and gold miners are prospering. The possible US recession is the most probable main driver. Gold is seen as the best hedge against both the US recession and the US dollar currency weakness. Gold has returned a neat 20 percent return compared to the S&P which has declined 12 percent. Market commentators relate the current action in the market to what happened during 1979-80, when gold prices trebled within a matter of few weeks. A Fed Reserve rate cut would surely propel gold to new high price levels.

Australian Real Estate

Here's an update on Australian real estate. The "Australian Mortgage Industry Report", a joint research whitepaper by JPMorgan and Fujitsu Consulting, due to be published next month, makes the prediction that some 750,000 Australian homeowners will be subjected to "mortgage stress" in the coming months - which means more than 35 per cent of their income will be allocated to home-loan repayments alone.

Jerome Kerviel Rogue Trader

Jérôme Kerviel , the 31 year old French rogue trader employed by France's second largest bank, Société Générale (SocGen) has been charged for "breach of trust'', "falsifying and using falsified documents'' and "breaching IT controls access codes''. News of the biggest ever financial fraud in history broke last Thursday on the 24th of January 2008. The rogue trader defrauded the bank of €4.82 billion (AUD$8.2 billion, US$7.09 billion) - the largest trading fraud by a single person. Kerviel took an US$83 billion losing bet on European share prices.

Recommended Websites