November 17, 2009

Global Market Comments
November 17, 2009

Featured Trades: (BAC), (GOLD)

1) I don't care how many times you ask me, I'm not going to replace Ken Lewis as the new CEO of the Bank of America (BAC). I will not accept if nominated and?? I will not serve if elected (sorry General Sherman). Sure, it would look great on my resume, I'd get invited to all the right dinner parties, and unlimited use of the corporate jet has its appeal, especially if I get to be the pilot. Of course, there are those oodles of cheap stock options you are offering me. But with the shares now at $16, and the chart looking a little green around the gills and on the verge of puking, it will take so long for them to achieve any real value that my kids, or even my grandkids, are the most likely beneficiaries. Really, who wants to work for the government? There will be all of those chinless federal pencil necks second guessing my every decision. I do have a tendency to explode like a drill sergeant with a torrent of four letter words when submitted to media glare. Heaven forbid if I wanted to have a three martini lunch. Dinner at Elaine's with CNBC's muckraking Charlie Gasparino? You've got to be kidding. And who would want to live in Charlotte, North Carolina, anyway? The summers there make Hell seem like an island paradise. Best I could do would be a commute from Manhattan at company expense. With the bank about to get swamped with another tsunami of home mortgage foreclosures, I don't want to be there when the sushi hits the fan, offering lame excuses.?? Isn't it really a fall guy you are looking for? Certainly, there are others infinitely more patient and qualified for this job than The Mad Hedge Fund Trader? Why not John Corzine? I hear he's available. He did a great job with the State of New Jersey, didn't he? It's not his fault the Great Recession demolished his state's finances. Come on, John, I'm sorry I accidently drank out of your wine glass when you tried to recruit me for Goldman Sachs over lunch 20 years ago. Get me off the hook on this one and we'll call it even. Come to think of it, maybe I should be shorting BAC here. Any company the wants me as its CEO must have something seriously wrong with it.

2) Gold punched through to a new all time high today of $1,137/ounce. Occasionally I hit the nail on the head so precisely, it's worth a replay. So here is my September 10, 2009 story, which turned out to be the day that it was off to the races for the barbaric relic. For the link, click here . Yes, I know that a broken clock is right twice a day, that if you fire buckshot long enough you will eventually hit a barn, and even a blind man finally pins the tail on the donkey, but look at the chart of the yellow metal's move since then.

'The precious metals markets were stunned with Barrick Gold's (ABX) announcement that it will float a $3 billion public offering to retire its gold hedges in the futures markets. This means that the world's largest producer is cashing in its downside protection and gearing itself for a ballistic move up in the price of the barbaric relic. The timing of the announcement, the day that the yellow metal broke $1,000 for the first time since February, couldn't have been more auspicious. I have been a huge fan of Peter Munk's ABX all year, cajoling readers into the stock at $27 in January before its 56% run (click here for report ) . South Africa's largest gold miner, AngloGold Ashanti's CEO, Mark Cutifani, says his company put its money where its mouth is, taking off its hedges some time ago. 'People are doing what they have been doing for 5,000 years, and that is buying gold as the only hard currency,' opines Cutifani. In the meantime, the Street Tracks gold ETF (GLD) announced that it has $34 billion of gold holdings, making it the largest ETF of all, and the fifth largest owner of gold in the world after four central banks. If you want to buy gold bullion or coins for the tightest spread over spot, check out Millennium Metals by clicking here.'

QUOTE OF THE DAY

' The oil era will end in 30 years, as it is replaced by alternatives, offshore, and tar sands,' said Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the former Saudi oil minister, who invited me on his private jet for a trip to the kingdom so I could conduct an exclusive interview during the seventies.