Germany Chancellor plans lithium deal with Serbia after Rio ruling
Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry.
US stocks were driven down at Tuesday’s start as Europe’s debt troubles and the US employment outlook continued to rattle investors’ nerves. The the major indexes were down for a third session and the S&P 500 Index SPX entered bear market territory, off 20% from its April high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points to 10,435. The S&P 500 dropped 1.7% to 1,080 and the Nasdaq Composite Index came off lightest, down 20 points. The resource-heavy TSX composite index fell more than 2% to hit a 20-month low of 11,006 shortly after the open. Unsurprisingly the carnage was greater in the Eurozone where the major indices in London, Frankfurt and Paris all lost more than 3%. The crude oil market declined further with US futures down 2% to under $76. Gold could not capitalize on the uncertainty and traded $10 lower at $1,647/oz.
Reuters reports European finance ministers are considering making banks take bigger losses on Greek debt and have postponed a vital aid payment to Athens until mid-November, setting up a crunch point in the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the country had enough cash to cope until then and insisted that euro zone ministers were not preparing for a Greek default, despite the ominous delay.
MarketWatch reports Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said in testimony prepared for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress: “Recent indictors, including new claims for unemployment insurance and surveys of hiring plans, point to the likelihood of more sluggish job growth in the period ahead.” Last week Bernanke called the weak labor market a national crisis.
Comments
Dan Oancea
Don’t let the bear touch you – buy a bear gun! Heavy ammo would include the Silver bullet (also effective against vampires – Wall Street type) & Gold bricks/ingots as no bear could stand a direct gold hit. David did more with a pebble (not the one from Alaska though), so why not you?
This is what you can do with a regular rock (no gold or silver in it) against a charging bear http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/09/08/bc-bear-rock.html
So if you’re not out there occupying the Wall Street you could buy some gold & silver as good bear medicine – this is what the bull doctor recommended.