Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Australia's Rate Boost Hurts Dollar (Aussie, NZ and Canada dollar are up)
wall st journal ^ | OCTOBER 6, 2009 | By BRADLEY DAVIS

Posted on 10/06/2009 7:42:16 AM PDT by dennisw

The dollar dropped overnight Tuesday as the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked interest rates, the first G20 country to do so, putting added pressure on the low-yielding greenback.

The rate hike comes at a time when U.S. interest rates are still ultra-low, making the dollar less attractive to investors. The RBA's move reinforces the impression the U.S. could lag behind other countries in raising rates as the world pulls out of the financial crisis.

The RBA Tuesday raised interest rates for the first time since March 2008, becoming the first central bank from the Group of 20 to begin withdrawing stimulus that has sustained the economy through the global financial crisis.

The RBA's cautious one-quarter-of-a-percentage point increase in the cash rate target to 3.25% reflects growing confidence in the global outlook and Australia's performance

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens indicated in a statement accompanying the policy decision that the rate rise may be the first of a series as the central bank normalizes interest rate levels.

U.S. interest rates are likely to remain low for some time -- putting pressure on the dollar -- amid weak inflation and a modest economic rebound, a top Federal Reserve official said Monday.

The Canadian dollar is considerably higher Tuesday morning as it benefits from the broadly based weakness in the U.S., a solid tone in commodities, and the rally in the closely aligned Australian dollar after the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked interest rates.

The U.S. dollar is trading at C$1.0638 from C$1.0706 late Monday. The U.S. dollar hit a session low at C$1.0615, its lowest level since Sept. 17, according to EBS via CQG. The U.S./Canadian dollar pair did not show much reaction to the news early Tuesday that Canadian municipalities issued C$5.02 billion of building permits in August, up 7.2% from July.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Business/Economy; Canada; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: forex

1 posted on 10/06/2009 7:42:16 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dennisw

NAME OF THE GAME IS-—>>>
Do you have a commodity backed currency and commodity dominated economy? NZ, Australia and Canada do and their currencies have been appreciating versus the USD for months with the trend accelerating in the last 2 months. I don’t think any of these three are running trade deficits


2 posted on 10/06/2009 7:44:48 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

I could absolutely kick myself for not investing in gold. Not surprisingly, it’s spiking like crazy right now.


3 posted on 10/06/2009 7:46:59 AM PDT by jpl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Last year I posted that commodities are the new ‘global currency’. I took a bath investing with that idea, but it appears I was right. Am making back what I lost and hope to be ahead very soon. Of course if the USD becomes worthless, paper profits will not mean much. Buy physical gold, silver, and bullets.


4 posted on 10/06/2009 7:47:23 AM PDT by milwguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

better get use to it


5 posted on 10/06/2009 7:49:14 AM PDT by GeronL (California : bankrupt ideas from bankrupt people from a bankrupt state now bankrupting America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jpl

If this keeps up, gold will keep going up, right?


6 posted on 10/06/2009 7:50:07 AM PDT by GeronL (California : bankrupt ideas from bankrupt people from a bankrupt state now bankrupting America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: jpl

Hopefully gold will take another dip for you and many others

Here is a very good live chart http://www.usagold.com/live.html and you can manipulate it to go back a few years via “time scale”. You can see the dips

You can also see the history of the Canada and Australia dollars versus ours..... going back months and years


7 posted on 10/06/2009 7:53:09 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

It’s almost as if printing Billions of Dollars to stimulate the economy, and finance Gov’t incompetence has a negative effect globally < /sarcasm>


8 posted on 10/06/2009 7:56:05 AM PDT by Hodar (Who needs laws .... when this "feels" so right?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: milwguy

timing timing timing.....glad to see your commodity investments are coming back. All commodities peaked summer 2008 when oil nearly hit $150 and headed down. The USD got very strong peaking last January. Since Jan2009 the USD has been going down and commodities up....Obviously putting commodity nations like Canada and Australia in the drivers seat


9 posted on 10/06/2009 7:56:42 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Hodar
It’s almost as if printing Billions of Dollars to stimulate the economy, and finance Gov’t incompetence has a negative effect globally < /sarcasm>

Few Americans know or care about how much the US dollar is worth abroad or in terms of gold
American care a lot more how their own personal economic situation gets stimulated or bailed out by 0bama
Team Obama is counting on this obliviousness

But as I heard Glenn Beck say today--- "The US Dollar has quietly lost 20-30% of it's value in the last few months"
So far this has not impacted Chinese/Asian imports....I see lots of fire sale prices in computer components for example

It should impact on energy prices soon

10 posted on 10/06/2009 8:03:18 AM PDT by dennisw (Free Republic is an island in a sea of 0-zombies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

I was pretty much all in in Feb/Mar 08 before the huge runup in oil. Have gone big in nat gas/gold/silver because currency issues will keep gold/silver strong and sooner or later we in the uSA will realize if we tap the huge nat gas supplies we have, we can tell hugo, ammanut job, putin, the saudi’s etc to shove their oil. The solution to our problems is in our hands, our political class is just too stupid to see it. Nuclear, coal, nat gas for our power. Screw the world, the Chinese are building 130 nuke plants in the next 10 years and we are building how many?


11 posted on 10/06/2009 8:04:30 AM PDT by milwguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: dennisw; TigerLikesRooster; Dustbunny; JDoutrider; CottonBall; autumnraine; sickoflibs; ...

gloom and doom ping list


12 posted on 10/06/2009 8:04:31 AM PDT by dennisw (Free Republic is an island in a sea of 0-zombies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: milwguy

Here’s a bit on Westinghouse building/designing new nuclear reactors-——>>

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/power_city/2009/09/westinghouse_nuke_unit_keeps_growing.html

In addition to domestic development of the reactor, Westinghouse is building four AP1000 in China. The first of those is scheduled to come on line in 2013.

That will be about three years before any U.S. plant. And that will give U.S. utilities a chance to see the plants in operation well before they come on line here.

The sheer costs of nuclear plants still give U.S. power companies some pause. Lee would cost at least $11 billion in current dollars. Frequently construction costs exceed the market cap of the companies planning to build them. And that has led rating agencies to raise red flags about nuclear construction plans.


13 posted on 10/06/2009 8:08:25 AM PDT by dennisw (Free Republic is an island in a sea of 0-zombies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

My brother is a nuclear engineer for a major US electric company. He used to work in the plants but now overseas maintenance and refueling for a number of plants. According to him the new technology is so far advanced that they should be a slam dunk. The problem as always in the enviro wacho three mile island/chernobyl crowd.

Just like drilling off Santa Barbara Cali is stymied by fears of the 60’s oil spills, the nuke industry has been paralyzed ever since three mile island. We have the solution to our employment problem, our tax revenue problem, our energy problems all in our grasp. Instead our leaders tilt at windmills in the Quixotic quest for ‘green jobs’. Green energy currently costs 8x as much as non-green energy. When you combine expensive energy with high labor costs, the USA will be forever competitively disadvantaged.


14 posted on 10/06/2009 8:15:54 AM PDT by milwguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: milwguy
According to him the new technology is so far advanced that they should be a slam dunk. The problem as always in the enviro wacho three mile island/chernobyl crowd.

Nuclear reactor safety and design has advanced tremendously since 1979. Just look what kind of computers and automobiles we had back then. Lots of development abroad and I guess America too

But construction methods really have to be clamped down on and disciplined
I heard so many stories about crappy welds etc
Nuclear plant construction seemed to attract a migrant workforce back then during the nuclear plant boom years
They would move from one nuclear plant to another and too many were on drugs and drink in my opinion
These days illegal immigrants would be building these plants and I can envision sabotage

15 posted on 10/06/2009 8:31:40 AM PDT by dennisw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
The world is saying that the dollar is very vulnerable at the moment. Washington DC is destroying our economy in its red (pun intended) hot pursuit of communist utopia. They are destroying our economy and our nation. The world is moving on to prosperity and the USA is the next Argentina. Simple, No????? WE elected a clown POUTS. WE elect a Pelosi led Congress full of idiots who can't even debate and vote on actual bills, just summaries, because they are too stupid to legislate. We feed these peckerheads and we keep electing them.

States must begin to unwind from this mess by limiting the power of the federal clown show or they need to leave the Union and start over.

Sit on hands and die as a nation. The world is leaving us behind....

16 posted on 10/06/2009 8:37:33 AM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
The impact of a declining dollar is that American lifestyles get shabbier and shabbier. College graduates can't get jobs and when they do, they are lower paid. When inflation hits, people buy less entertainment. Cheaper clothing. Cheaper cars. Everyone becomes a WalMart shopper to preserve dollars that continually decline in purchasing power. Life gets shabby and depressing as more and more people end up on some form of assistance. This shabbiness least for a generation or two as people become ridiculously thrifty to preserve some sense of civilization.

Look at the UK. Shabby lifestyle for most and they Cherish the "family silver" or a few other objects that remind them of the dignity and wealth the family once enjoyed. Pathetic clinging to relics of lost prosperity.

17 posted on 10/06/2009 8:46:51 AM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: April Lexington

>> The impact of a declining dollar is that American lifestyles get shabbier and shabbier.

So quality of life is defined solely as material wealth, then?


18 posted on 10/06/2009 9:12:35 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Stop dissing drunken sailors! At least they spend their OWN money.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

Throw in the Arabs and Russians and it’s starting to look like a perfect storm.


19 posted on 10/06/2009 9:13:40 AM PDT by GOPJ (MSM BIAS: the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nervous Tick
Yep. Pretty much unless you are an Earth muffin. Quality of life is important...
20 posted on 10/06/2009 9:39:52 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson