Clorox, with profit falling, raising prices

Inflation is contained everywhere but the real world.

Inflation and a sour economy eroded profit at Oakland-based Clorox, which has responded by raising store prices, the consumer products maker said Tuesday.

Clorox earned $151 million on sales of $1.3 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2011. Compared to the year-ago January-March period, earnings fell 8.5 percent as sales rose 1.3 percent.

"We face a challenging economic environment, as evidenced by weak category performance in the U.S. and increasing commodity costs," said Don Knauss, Clorox's chief executive officer.

Source: insidebayarea.com

Is Gold About to Go Vertical?

A bubble implies an unsustainable market. Gold is going up for a reason and will retain much of its value after the great rebalancing.

The public has yet to participate in the great secular gold bull market. This will change as they always come late with unrealistic expectations.

Gold is in a bubble. Anyone will tell you that. They've been saying it since gold was about, oh, $500 an ounce.

But it's a funny kind of a bubble. It's the only one I've encountered where so few people seem to own the asset in question.

During the dot-com bubble, you met lots of people with tech stocks. Taxi drivers told you what dot-coms they owned.

During the housing bubble you met normal, ordinary people who were trading up to expensive homes using adjustable-rate mortgages, buying new condos off plan to flip, and cashing out their fictional "equity" through a refinance mortgage.

But who actually owns gold? I keep hearing about the gold bubble, but every time I ask people if they own any themselves, they say, "no, no, of course not, it's a bubble."

Some bubble

Source: finance.yahoo.com

The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself

(Link) View more Franklin Delano Roosevelt Sound Clips and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Inaugural Address Sound Clips

Follow the money.

Headline: Mexico, Russia, Thailand Add $6 Billion of Gold to Reserves, IMF Data Show

Mexico, Russia and Thailand added gold now valued at about $6 billion to their reserves in February and March as prices advanced to a record, the dollar weakened and Treasuries lost investors money.

Mexico bought 93.3 metric tons since January, adding to holdings of about 6.9 tons, according to International Monetary Fund data. Russia increased its reserves by 18.8 tons to 811.1 tons in March and Thailand expanded assets by 9.3 tons to 108.9 tons in the same month, the data show.

Source: bloomberg.com

A Picture of Currency Induced Cost Push Inflation

Acceleration phases in the ISM's prices paid to PMI ratio illustrate currency induced cost push inflation quite well.

ISM Prices Paid Index (PP) to National Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) Ratio:


Observations:
(1) The recent up tick in the ratio is part of greater acceleration that began in 2008.
(2) While the up tick has caught the public attention, i.e. pain of higher gas and food prices, it’s hardly statistically extended. History has shown us that market forces are notorious for pressing ‘pain’ well beyond the comfort zone.
(3) History also suggests that the amplitude of acceleration phases will increase over time. For example, the growing size of the spikes from 1966, 1970, 1974, and 1980. A similar pattern is beginning to reveal itself with little media attention.

Source: ism.ws

Ebb and Flow of Greed and Fear Within A Well Defined Trend

As Jim has suggested numerous times, margins will be raised until it’s a cash only trade. The headline below describes the classic ebb and flow between greed and fear within well-defined trend. Just last week silver was the hottest, most important market in the eyes of many traders/investors. A coordinated paper attack (operation) quickly transforms the resolve of greed into doubt of fear.

What has changed? Discipline suggests nothing. In fact, Friday’s money flows will most likely reveal even more aggressive accumulation and distribution by ‘smart’ and ‘not-so smart’ players, respectively. In other words, it will likely show, either this week or next, statistical concentrations of money flows or bullish setups in either gold, silver, maybe both. Until then, the computers sell, fear takes over the market, and retail money, following the lead of emotions rather than discipline, exit the market in disgust.

Headline: Silver Slumps on Higher Margins; Gold Drops on Report of Soros Fund Sales

Silver futures dropped, heading for the biggest three-day fall since March 2008, as an increase in margin requirements on the Comex in New York drove investors away. Gold also fell after a report that Soros Fund Management LLC may have cut holdings.

Silver for July delivery slumped as much as 5 percent to $40.465 per ounce, after losing 7.6 percent yesterday and 5.2 percent on May 2. The metal was at $41.175 at 2:01 p.m. in Singapore, taking losses over the three days to 16 percent. Immediate-delivery gold fell 0.2 percent to $1,533.28 an ounce, also lower for a third session.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Relax

Good advice from Jim. I would add that the movement of money during the decline reveals duration of the paper operation. The footprint of control reveals itself through statistical concentration. The statistical concentration will setup the next advance.

Eric

"Relax"

It has always this way.

Silver helped and silver hurts.
Silver did its normal silver thing.
As poor man gold, silver always gets over speculated on mimimal financing among the believers.
Then, as today, believers get sold out by the short play to follow.

However, there is no top in Gold at this time, nor in all probability in silver.
In truth, the action is beneficial to the ability of gold to scale the heights 2011-2015 defined by Alf Fields and Martin Armstrong.

Jim Sinclair

Brother, Can You Spare A Trillion?: Government Gone Wild!

Trading computer algorithms are designed to react rather than 'think'. Follow the money during the paper operation. The money flows will setup the next advance in gold. The reasons why are discussed below.