The Traderszone Network

The ruble and other currencies do not compete against the dollar. They are dollar derivatives.

The dollar is headed to ruin, but that doesn’t mean that any other paper currency can replace it. The others will fail first.

The dollar will fail last.

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Asian shares sagged on Thursday after a retreat on Wall Street and falling crude oil prices rekindled investor anxiety over slowing global growth, while a mixed picture on Chinese manufacturing failed to impress markets. Japan’s Nikkei share average fell 0.4 percent while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.3 percent. In particular, investors have been rattled by the threat of recession in Europe and the Chinese economy cooling to its weakest in over five years in the third quarter. The latest manufacturing read on China did little to allay those concerns.

Through September, corporate bond portfolios boosted their holdings of U.S. The funds now hold about $13 billion in Treasuries, 15 percent more than the $11.3 billion they held at the end of 2013.

It’s not been a good time for Warren Buffett wannabes. Sharp drops in many of the stocks owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in recent weeks hit the sprawling conglomerate’s equity portfolio hard. The loss on seven of those holdings alone totals more than $5 billion provided Berkshire’s stakes have remained the same since June 30, the last date for which they were disclosed. In particular, Berkshire’s been stung by large holdings in IBM and long-time Buffett favorite Coca-Cola, both of which tumbled after disappointing third-quarter results.

In the stock market, if the price of a stock moves outside of a range of prices it has recently traded in for more than 15 seconds, the stock is briefly halted to give traders a chance to figure out if the move was justified, or if it might have been in error. There are currently 12 options markets in the United States, run by Nasdaq OMX Group, BATS Global Markets, Deutsche Boerse’s ISE unit, TMX Group’s BOX Options Exchange, Miami International Holdings Inc and Intercontinental Exchange Inc’s NYSE unit.

Finland’s Nokia on Thursday beat market expectations as it reported strong third-quarter profit growth and lifted the profitability outlook for its core network unit on the back of network roll-outs in North America and China. The network unit showed a core operating profit margin of 13.5 percent, up from 11.0 percent in the second quarter and topping analysts’ average forecast of 9.9 percent in a Reuters poll.

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A proposal in Congress would let insurance companies run state and local retirement pensions; Alicia Munnell says it’s deeply flawed.
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