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Data Points in a slow week:

A very quiet beginning of the week, with no news until Thursday and Friday.  As I often stated my “thing” is Canada and its progress/failure in progressing as an economy.  First the bare facts:  Canada is by historical standards in poor shape, but compared to almost everyone other OECD country else we are doing amazingly well.  Historically, our oft cited weaknesses (strong industrial and mining basis) are today considered strength.  No doubt that in a resource challenged world (where demand increase but were supply are becoming constrained) being a resource rich one is attractive.  However this richness is not a quality, it’s a state of being, quality arise from the human element:  peace, rule of law, little corruption, well educated population with interesting demographics.

Ok end of preaching!  The rest is stuff which has been accumulating in my inbox:

Gold:

Interesting statistics on Gold producer, as the price rises the impact on the share price (throughout history) has been very positive, with a 2:1 increment in the value of gold stocks (i.e. if gold price go up by 1 unit, stock prices go up by 2 units).  That’s not my work; the chart below just confirms the trend.  


More amusing, the UAE authority in Dubai no longer test “Gold” in provenance of Africa.  According to UAE official its always 100% fake – you have been warned

TIC Report & China (ok not Canadian..)

From today’s TIC report:  Chinese Treasury holdings dropped to a 1 year low of $843.7 billion, following reductions in both long-term and short-term treasuries. China now has almost $100 billion less in US Treasuries compared to the peak of $940 billion in July 2009. One wonders what China is buying with the sale/maturity proceeds?

The Chinese authorities are also pushing down the Yuan rather aggressively – consider that China has just hit its biggest trade surplus…

Canadian Housing:

Canada’s housing market stalled in July as sales sank 30 per cent from the same month a year earlier (Canadian Real Estate Association). Prices edged up 1 per cent from July 2009, though slipped 3.5 per cent from June, with sellers finding far fewer buyers willing to step into the market.  The country's largest cities led the annual decline, with Vancouver posting a 45 per cent drop.

Housing has been a huge economic engine for Canada over the past 12 months, with massive increase in supply.  It would appear that Canadians are worried… it probably has something to do with the U.S. , our immediate neighbors!  The reality is that most Canadians live within 140km of the U.S. boarder, so Canadian are greatly influenced by the U.S. evening news

That is all.

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