OK... So, welcome to July! The last day of June was quite the volatile one to say the least! There we were waiting for the S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index to print, and show that home prices were still down by quite a bit, when it did, it did, it printed at -18.12%... But! The media was all over that like a cheap suit, clamoring that the spiral down in Home Prices had come to and end! Which, may be true... But wouldn't you want to wait to see if next month's report confirms it? And... By the way... Since when does -18.12% fall in home prices beckon a rally? Yesterday, would be that answer!

So... The currency rally that was going on for a 4th day, was quickly wiped out, Ventures style... What? Don't know who the Ventures are? Boy, you really missed a lot of great instrumentals! Any way, the euro sunk like the Titanic from a level of 1.4130 to 1.40... The iceberg that caused this mess was simply the fact that traders, etc. believe the U.S. is on its way out of this mess... Of course, they must not be readers, because... They would have read yesterday how I detailed the monthly numbers and showed how even with the spiral down in Home Prices ending, it would take until 2011 before the Home Prices got back to zero!

OK... Well... After the thrill is gone, and the dust settled on all that yesterday, the euro is leading the other currencies higher once again... Here are a few things that have caused a sell-off of the dollar overnight once again...

Not that I'm a fan of his... In fact, I don't really care at all... But George Soros, normally has some interesting things to say, that end up being bang on... So here are a few one liners from a speech by George Soros yesterday... I believe this sounds very much like the things I tell you, have told you, and will continue to tell you...

SOROS SAYS SEES A "STOP-GO" ECONOMY GOING FORWARD
SOROS SAYS SELF-CORRECTING MARKETS IS A MISCONCEPTION
SOROS SAYS INFLATION FEARS WILL DRIVE UP RATES AS MARKETS REVIVE, CHOKING OFF GROWTH
SOROS SAYS CURRENT SUPER BUBBLE MADE POSSIBLE BY PAST INTERVENTION, EFFORT TO RESOLVE PREVIOUS BUBBLES
SOROS SAYS FORMER FED CHAIRMAN GREENSPAN REFUSED TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR STOPPING BUBBLES

And then there was Alice Rivlin, she of former Budget Director, and former Fed Reserve member, fame, had a few things to say to the House Budget Committee... Good stuff, but you have to wonder if anyone was paying attention! Here's Alice!

"The long term budget outlook: impending
     catastrophe"

"No one needs to remind this Committee that the outlook for the federal budget is worrisome indeed, scary. Long before the financial crisis and the current deep recession, this Committee was anxiously pointing out that current federal spending and revenue policies are on a risky, unsustainable course. Promises made under the major entitlement programs (especially Medicare and Medicaid) will increase federal spending rapidly over the next couple of decades, as the population ages and medical spending continues to rise faster than other spending. Federal expenditures are projected to grow substantially faster than revenues, opening widening deficit gaps that cannot not be financed."

OK... Enough of all that, I don't want anyone to get hurt, and I should have told everyone to put away the sharp objects before reading!

In other data yesterday, Consumer Confidence took a step backward, and fell in June to 49.3 from May's figure of 54.8... Maybe those that were surveyed has just read Alive Rivlin's talk to the House Budget Committee! Seriously though, this was a surprise, given the fat that the DOW gained 838 points in the 2nd QTR! At least, that's what the Wall Street Journal said!

Today, we get a truckload of data starting with Challenger Job Cuts, and the ADP Employment Change. Those are followed by the ISM Manufacturing Index, Construction Spending, Pending Home Sales and Vehicle Sales... Not a lot of "major" data prints, but still stuff to check the pulse of the economy.

I was talking to my good friend, and an economics professor at a prestigious University, yesterday, and she mentioned that "this piece of data is questionable as to the inputs"... I said to her... "What piece of data isn't questionable these days?"

OK... The "demand for high yield" was put on hold yesterday... But it will return, or at least I should say I think it will return... I don't know for sure to say "it will", so had better make the legal beagles happy... That's funny! To say that they would be "happy" with me... They cringe, and get very uncomfortable every day when they read the analysis! HA!

But you know me... I'm just trying to provide Market Commentary, and other things that I think are important, well, important to me that is!

These are the things that really TICK ME OFF folks, so stay with me on this... Basically, as we all know the U.S. Treasury Auctions have been getting "covered" easily recently... And foreign demand was listed as the reason... Which would have been the exact opposite of what I was saying about foreigners shying away from Treasuries...

Here's the skinny... But I'll let Min Zeng tell it, since he did the research and brought this to the public, even though it was tucked away so no one would notice!

"But in a little-noticed switch on June 1, the Treasury changed the way it accounts for indirect bids, putting more buyers under that umbrella and boosting the portion of recent Treasury sales that the market perceived were being bought by foreigners.

The new definitions are deep in the arcane world of Treasury auctions. The change involves buyers who place orders through primary dealers. Those had been counted as direct buyers, but as of June 1 they were classified as indirect buyers, making that group larger than before. Because investors view that group as being dominated by foreign buyers, they assumed foreign demand was higher."

>>>> OK, back to me... Ahhh, so that's what's going on... The Treasury "moved the goal posts on us"... As Sylvester would say... That's despicable! Why isn't someone in Washington D.C. shouting from the roof tops about this? Oh, that's right, they're all in cahoots!

This is HUGE folks... So... When the markets were thinking that foreign demand was increasing, it was actually, as I had said, shying away from Treasuries! Which, if the market participants are thinking that as long as foreigners are "buying into our deficit spending" then the dollar will be on terra firma, but instead are getting "duped" by the U.S. Treasury, you would think that someone would have some xplainin to do... Right Lucy?

And here's another thing that just ticked me off when I read it this morning... Recall, last week I told you about how someone in China was dissing the talk that China's stimulus was working, and that China would not be recovering, which sent the Aussie dollar to the woodshed until this news had passed? Well... Talk about egg on their face! Here's the skinny...

China's manufacturing expanded for a fourth month in June... The official Purchasing Managers' Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.2 in June from 53.1 in May... And just like here in the U.S. any reading above 50 is thought to show manufacturing is expanding... The manufacturing index in the U.S. is around 44, so... We DO have the tale of two economies...

In one corner, we have the Chinese who have spent about $585 Billion worth of renminbi in stimulus, and are seeing the results... Whereas in the other corner we have the U.S. who have spent... More money than you can shake a stick at, and are not seeing green shoots like they "think they are", instead they see dandelions, and weeds!

And the currencies of Australia and New Zealand have responded positively to this news from China...

And since I'm talking about China, might as well check on the other members of the BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India and China) Brazil's real just posted its best quarterly performance on record, and India was Asia's 3rd best performing currency, and if you throw out the two currencies above India that are illiquid, South Korea, and Indonesia, India was the best performing currency in Asia in the second QTR...

And the people over at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) believe that the rupee won't stop here... RBS issued a research report calling for a record 11% gain by the rupee in the 3rd QTR... I bet this news is music to the ears of my colleague on the "other" newsletter that I write... The Currency Capitalist... (to find out more: https://www.web-purchases.com/CUC/WCUCJ900/landing) My colleague, Ashish Advani, at the Sovereign Society, has been saying the rupee would be a strong performer for months now!

Here's something you might want to be aware of, regarding the New Zealand dollar / kiwi... About $4.5 Billion in kiwi Uridashi and euro kiwi bonds denominated in kiwi will expire next month... I'm told that this is more than 4 times the size of a usual monthly expiration of bonds. This could very well be the hoola hoop the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is looking for, given their wish that kiwi would weaken...

Royal Bank of Canada's Currency guru, Sue Trinh, says that kiwi weakness could be beneficial to Aussie dollars, as the Japanese are leaning toward Aussie over kiwi these days...

Sounds about right to me!

And then there was this... OK, you all saw that Bernie Madoff was given 150 years in prison... Did you see that his wife, Ruth, reached an agreement with the authorities to return all of her wealth except $2.5 million that she got to keep? The thing that I still don't get is how there aren't more people going down with the ship on this one... I've been in the back office of brokerage firms, ran a margin dept, etc. and know this wasn't just Bernie and his accountant... There was a lot of wool pulled over many eyes... And this will be the next step in the investigation by the U.S. officials... To see, who else knew what... If a whole stable full of people aren't found to have known, then I'll be surprised...

Currencies today 7/1/09: A$ .8045, kiwi .6410, C$ .8640, euro 1.4050, sterling 1.6430, Swiss .9220, rand 7.7675, krone 6.39, SEK 7.6337, forint 192.50, zloty 3.1390, koruna 18.3315, yen 96.90, sing 1.4475, HKD 7.75, INR 47.90, China 6.8330, pesos 13.18, BRL 1.9515, dollar index 80.11, Oil $71.27, 10-year 3.54%, Silver $13.67, and Gold... $931.20