International & World Report

Riding the wave of recovery in China, Australia offered a further rise in borrowing costs to prevent a resurgence of inflation. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised on Tuesday, its main interest rate a quarter point to 4.25%. This is the fifth increase since October. The higher rate, which surprised the market did bounce the Australian dollar to 0.92 U.S. dollar. The Sydney Stock Exchange reached its highest eighteen months of sitting.

Heavily dependent on commodities, the Australian economy is recovering faster than other OECD economies, thanks to strong demand from Asia, notably China faxless cash advance. In 2009, growth was 3%, while the unemployment rate remained at 5.3% of the workforce. But since the beginning of the year, inflation topped 2%.

The stimulus Chinese 450 billion euros to full advantage to Australian orders, even if the exchange rate weighs on exports. Experts expect interest rates between 5% and 5.25% at the end of the year, which explains the attraction for the Australian currency.

The euro ended the year in small form. For the first time since early September, the single currency rose again Friday to below $ 1.43 and briefly touched a low point, on Monday at 1.4280 dollar. Last month, the euro was trading at $ 1.50 again, "a disaster," was then proclaimed Henri Guaino, special adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, now more discreet about the changes. Once is not custom, it is fundamental to the European economy, considered worse than in the U.S., affecting the markets.

The decline of the euro began in early December with the debt crisis Greek degraded by Fitch. It widened last week when Standard & Poor's followed this movement. "The market remains skeptical about the state budget of Greece, which should continue to dampen prospects for the euro," says Jane Foley cabinet Forex.com.

Debts under surveillance

One Member State trembles, and the whole currency area flickering. Especially that Greece is not alone in worrying the markets. The debts of Spain and Ireland, which have surged with the crisis, are also under close surveillance.

Financial solidarity with countries in distress, implicitly shown by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the European Council has not been enough to reassure markets. Even if they are all very positive news from the United States seem, by comparison, the best news for investors. "The United States are ultimately not so badly placed compared to other major world economies," says a strategist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

Overseas, unemployment has stopped growing in November, the U.S. economy could even recreate jobs in the first quarter.In 2010, all institutes ensure the growth of the United States looks twice as strong as that of the eurozone. The dollar's rise also reflects an early turning point for monetary policy. The Fed said after its last monetary policy committee that it would leave its policy rate close to zero for a "prolonged period", but it plans to turn a gradual withdrawal of liquidity from month March which will make dollar investments more attractive.

A third factor supporting the dollar this year, said Patrick Artus, Research Director at Natixis: purchases of greenbacks by the Chinese central bank is rife, Beijing had no intention of letting the yuan appreciate against the dollar …

Gold continues to see progress during his flying record after record for over a month and a half. This Monday, November 23, ounce of gold was traded on the London Bullion Market cons 1170 U.S. dollars, the highest price ever recorded on the market.

This new record was set when the confidence of investors vis-?-vis the dollar continues. On Monday, the euro gained ground against the dollar, approaching the bar $ 1.50 per euro.

The persistent weakness of the dollar encourages central banks to diversify their reserve assets, and increase their gold reserves. India and Sri Lanka have recently made massive purchases of precious metals. India has procured 200 tonnes of gold via the International Monetary Fund earlier this month.Sri Lanka's share increased its gold reserves of 5.3 tonnes in September.

The yellow metal continues to play its role as a safe haven

Although enshrined in recent weeks in a bullish pattern, the uncertainty surrounding the stock markets is another factor increasing the demand for gold. The yellow metal continues to play its role as a safe haven, especially in the period probably know that currently the world's economies, but seems even become a fully fledged investment.

"For the first time in twenty years that I see so many prestigious managers share the same strategy (investment in gold)," said Bradley Alford, the hedge fund Alpha Capital Management, Market Watch. "Some of these investors are icons of the industry, with more than fifteen years of management at their counter. He is lost in advance to play against their tendency.They have not become billionaires by making bad paris "he adds.

However, markets are unique in that a widespread enthusiasm for asset class often ends by the service, building up and then burst the bubble that this enthusiasm had itself generated.