The DJIA futures at 8:12am ET are now at 11693, up from 11682 in the past 90 minutes.

Earlier today, the Asia-Pacific equity markets were mostly down except for Japan: Australia’s All Ords index (flat again at 5043.5); Shanghai (-5.34% to 2319.87); Hong Kong (-1.09% to 20930.67); India’s Sensex (-0.53% to 14645.66); and Japan’s Nikkei (+1.12% to 13165.45).

At about 8:20am ET in Europe, markets have turned stronger after the open: the French CAC is up +0.79% at 4489; the German DAX is up +0.21% at 6460; and the UK FTSE is up +0.35% at 5474.

Spot gold, palladium, platinum and silver at 8:27am ET were a weaker than at 6:50am ET (price then in brackets): 791.40 (796.28), 278 (280), 1373 (1380), and 13.06 (13.09). These prices are close to Friday am at this time.

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Comments:

The US Presidential campaign conventions will now begin to focus Americans on how the country will be shaped under a new Administration. Too bad the backroom deals have already been cut and the decisions made that will help one group of vested interests versus another. Although the cameras will show the convention mobs, we’re not talking democracy here. The choices have been made and both men have been bought-and-paid-for.

As for the market, I don’t think one Party would do much different than another. We all know the myths, which aren’t borne out by facts. Truthfully, with all the lobby interests that must be dealt with by both Parties in their fight for the seat of power, the US is now appropriately being called the USSA.

None of that is news. What will determine the future course of US capital markets, which are still the world’s most important, is in the post-election period whether the people will come together with a single mind-set to create wealth or whether they carry on what has been endless internal bickering over politics.

During the next several months, traders will be looking for evidence of that potential for harmony. If it appears that the neo-con political groups or the self-serving Wall Street insiders who have been so influential in the past many years are going to carry on business as usual, I think the US equity market is going to turn out something like what the Fannie Mae shareholders are staring at today, which is not a pretty sight.

It’s time that Americans get re-focused on what’s important: economic wealth creation.

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Links & Charts

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International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar.

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International Equity Markets Review

Europe

Here is the latest session data for the bourses of Europe.

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Here is the latest session data for the London stock exchange FTSE.

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Here is the latest session data for the German DAX.

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Here is the latest session data for the French CAC 40.

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Here is the latest session data for the Milan Italy stock exchange MIBTEL.

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Here is the latest session data for the Swiss market index.

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Asia-Pacific

Here is the latest session data for the Asia-Pacific stock exchanges.

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Here is the latest chart for the Japanese Nikkei 225 index.

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Here is the latest chart for the Singapore index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Shanghai Composite index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Hong Kong Hang Seng index .

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Here is the latest chart for the India BSE 30 index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Australian All Ordinaries index .

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US Equity Markets Review

DJIA (interactive) chart

NASDAQ Composite (interactive) chart

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Oil Review

Here is the e-miNY Aug-08 Crude Oil chart.

Interactive Chart of Daily Crude Oil:

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Gold & Precious Metals Review

Spot gold chart for the week

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Spot silver chart for the week

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Forex Review

Here is the chart of the week's trading in the $USD.

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