Bonds/Interest Rates

One poor earnings result set off a jittery Wall Street as funds buying returned to gold and China hiked.

A deeper look into the various corners of one gigantic web of complex financial instruments that have created the CDO enigma.

Wall Street has decided to like Mr Bernanke’s comments as earnings results again pleased, at least before the bell. Oil, gold and base metals were all strong.

The Dow recovered somewhat from an initial 134 point fall last night as bargain hunters offset inevitable Bear Stearns weakness and disappointment from Mr Bernanke.

As Bear Stearns’ hedge funds are declared worthless, investment banks are getting stuck with private equity LBO loans and bonds, and Moody’s moves in on higher quality mortgage securities.

Nothing wrong with how the Aussie economy is performing and the prospects remain healthy, the latest Leading Index by Westpac-Melbourne Institute suggests.

Wall Street action was all after the bell this morning as Bear Stearns announced its funds at the centre of the subprime crisis were close to worthless and some poor profit results were posted.

Wednesday night’s CPI result in the US should provide a clue to the next move in gold as the US dollar threatens to truly collapse.

NZ inflation for the June quarter rose 1.0% against expectations of a 0.8% gain so the market is factoring in a July rate hike, but not all analysts agree the RBNZ will again tighten.

There was a broad market decline on Wall Street overnight leaving the Dow to do its own thing on rumours of a bid for telco Verizon.