It's the rare little builder that has made his financial house wholly out of gold, whereas those having none at all is the all-too-common state of affairs down at Old MacDonald's farm. With just a little gold you could have a solid foundation on which to regroup and rebuild. And with just a little more you might have a complete storm shelter in which to calmly endure the winds of change.
The choice is yours. Choose gold -- the 'bacon' you save may soon be your very own.
Uranium prices have dropped about 70% from their highs in 2007, but with Asia's drive for nuclear power going strong, and expected only to strengthen further, there's plenty of opportunity for prices to return to higher ground. Uranium spot prices are at around $41 per pound, having registered a steep decline from a 2007 high of $136, according to industry sources.
Despite that, prices are "still historically high and expected to go up due to increasing demand from new reactor construction, a phasing out of secondary, nonmined supplies and substantial lag time involved in bringing new mines to market," said David Stellfox, European editor of Platts Nuclear Publications. (more)
The notional amount of outstanding over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives stood at $615 trillion in December 2009, up from $605 trillion six months earlier, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). That is still well below June 2008’s figure of $684 trillion, which was the highest figure since the BIS began to collect such data in 1998. The amount of credit-default swaps outstanding fell by almost 10% in the second half of 2009. Notional amounts are useful as a measure of market size. But the BIS reckons that gross market values provide a more accurate measure of the amounts that are actually at risk. The gross market values fell by 15% in the six months to December 2009, to $21.6 trillion. (more)
The equity index retreated 3.9 percent yesterday in its biggest loss in 14 months, sinking to 1,071.59, and slipped as low as 1,055.90 today. That compares with 1,065.79, the low two weeks ago when $862 billion was wiped out in 20 minutes. The options market benchmark known as the VIX soared 30 percent to 45.79 yesterday, meaning expectations for volatility are the highest in 13 months. (more)
