Good morning,

If Julius Caesar was a financial instrument then it would be Gold..It got taken out the back of the Senate last night and put to death…and Brutus was an honourable man..go the Ides of March!

It seemed only two weeks ago that the “Gloomberg” reports were all about how everyone was so bullish Gold..well,trouble is whenever everyone is long who else is going to buy it…it has fallen a whopping 8% in a couple of days…SPI down 17 but will be a little weaker than that..1642..oh how the mighty has fallen!

On SKY TV last night I talked about CAY and AJX..happy to discuss both if interested. Both spec stock..high risk. Wealth and health warning advised.

Few things that caught my eye

1.Great blistering farewell speech from ex Goldman Sachs employee confirmed what everyone had been thinking about the Empire and the Death star! …”customers are called “muppets” and staff talk about “ripping their clients off,” Smith wrote in an opinion piece. “I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.” Nice stuff.
2.JP Morgans Chief Asia analyst says China already has a hard landing.. . “China is in a hard landing. Car sales are down, cement production is down, steel production is down, construction stocks are down. It’s not a debate anymore, it’s a fact.”

3.News from Chinese leader that house prices are still too high, took the shine off Asia yesterday as Shanghai went it reverse..fell 2.6% yesterday the most since November 30.

4.UK gets watch on Negative credit watch ..suspect downgrade is only a matter of time..the French would love that!

5.Euro zone countries sign off on Greek debt deal.

6.QE3 seems off the table at the moment as the US economy starts to pick up pace..if no QE3 then the Gold price will continue to feel investor wrath!

7.Go Chelsea!!!Amazing stuff in the Champions league!Well done boys…that’s what football is all about.

8.Guns n Roses to reunite?

9.VIX around 15!Volatility will return don’t worry…

10.UK Government looking at issuing 100 year bonds..last time that happened was after the South Sea Bubble in 1720!!Sir Isaac Newton “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies,” he said, “but not the madness of people.”So true even today!

In economic news yesterday….

Australian consumer confidence slumped in March as uncertainty over the global economy persisted and major banks raised their home-loan rates in spite of two successive rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia, or RBA. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s index of consumer sentiment fell 5.0% in March from February, taking it below the level in mid-2011, as confidence was also dampened by job cuts in certain export sectors of the economy hurt by the country’s high currency. The downward drift in the benchmark interest rate in the second half of 2011 was partly offset by major banks lifting their own mortgage-lending rates citing rising funding costs, a direct knock-on effect of the ongoing instability in global markets. The consumer-confidence index fell to 96.1 points in March in seasonally adjusted terms from 101.1 points in February. In annual terms, it dropped 7.7%.

The total number of houses and apartments that started construction in Australia in the fourth quarter of 2011 fell 6.9% to a seasonally adjusted 33,653 from the third quarter of 2011. The Bureau of Statistics also reported that the number of private-sector houses started in the fourth quarter fell 2.7% to 21,845 from the previous quarter. The trend estimate for the total number of housing starts, which further smoothes the seasonally adjusted numbers, fell 5.8% to 34,122 from the fourth quarter.

Good work RBA..we are heading for the rocks and you are looking at the pretty girls on Cottesloe Beach!

Off to Melbourne for a couple of days to visit the Victorian Goldfields and some good friends..Grand Prix is on too..coincidence I think not!

Clarence

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