American International Group (AIG) recorded a Q2 deficit of $5.36 billion after losing $5.56 billion in credit default swaps and $6.08 billion in write-downs of other investments. This is the third consecutive quarterly loss during which AIG has lost more than $25 billion to credit default swaps and more than $15 billion in other investments, all figures pre-tax.

At Toyota (TM), global net income fell -28% to $3.2 billion in Q2, which is the worst performance in 5 years. Sales dropped -4.7%. Operating profit (sales minus cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative expenses) dropped -39% globally and -57% in North America. Although the stronger yen cut profit by almost half, Toyota is facing the same economically challenging conditions in the world that most consumer-based businesses are.

Yesterday in US equity market trading, the DJIA (+40.30 +0.35% to 11656.07), S&P Composite (+4.31 +0.34% to 1289.19) and NASDAQ Composite (+28.54 +1.21% to 2378.37) all lifted, but the enthusiasm was muted. The market Bulls were happy to consolidate the previous day’s gains.

Leading the market higher were the Energy (XLE +2.3%) and Industrial (XLI +1.9%) sectors. Financials (XLF -1.0%) and Consumer Discretionary (XLY -0.5%) pulled back.

The Toronto Exchange (+1.74% to 13453.51) and Venture Board (+0.28% to 2148.46) were higher, with the Venture stocks reversing the prior day’s loss of -4.8%.

The $USD gained +0.46% to $0.7425, while the Euro dropped -0.29% to 1.5408. $GOLD dropped -$3.10/oz to 883.00 and Crude Oil ($WTIC) slid -$0.59/bbl to 118.58.

Nevertheless, in extreme Cara 100 trading, where the volume was very low, the winners on the day were commodity stocks VCP +8.6% and SLW +8.3% as well as GRMN +8.1% and CSCO +5.7%. The big loser was WFMI -12.6%. Silver Wheaton (SLW) had dropped -11.3% the previous day, so despite no real change in the silver price on the day, traders decided the value is there in the leveraged equity, which may be a mistake.

The Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank (ECB) will announce their monetary policy in minutes, expected to remain constant, but with hard language against inflation. Commodity prices may sink further.

Overnight, Australia’s All Ords index (+0.24% to 5030.0); Shanghai (+0.30% to 2727.6); Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (+0.70% to 22104.2); and India’s Sensex (+0.29% to 15117.3) all moved a bit higher, while Japan’s Nikkei (-0.98% to 13124.99) sank under economic growth concerns.

At about 7:00am ET (1200 GMT) in Europe: the French CAC was up +1.10% to 4497; the German DAX up +0.32% to 6583; and the UK FTSE up +0.44% to 5510. Traders await the momentary report by the two major central banks releasing their policy statements. The BoE has just reported no change and the Pound/USD has weakened a bit.

The DJIA futures are at 11586 (-45), which indicates a soft open, following today’s nervousness caused by the very negative AIG report.

This morning the $USD futures are up over yesterday to $0.7422, but a little weaker in the morning, and Euro/USD is a tad stronger early today at 1.5437, with little movement ahead of the ECB report. Crude Oil is stronger, up to 120.01.

The precious metals spot prices haven’t moved much for three days in a row: gold, palladium, platinum and silver at 7:08am ET are 882.52, 351, 1605, and 16.555. Only platinum has moved higher, likely in response to the Xstrata (LSE:XTA) bid for Lonmin (LSE:LMI).

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Comments & Outlook

There are some interesting developments in capital markets Yesterday, Freddie Mac CEO Syron told CNBC media that his decisions have been the ones traders should have expected him to make and that to see it otherwise is hindsight. He cited legal requirements to stay the policies, but others are questioning his decisions. PIMCO’s Bill Gross was interviewed by Bloomberg, saying that the US Treasury was likely to buy $30 billion in preferred shares, which Syron denied. There is a lot of vested interests involved in this battle. At the end of the day, traders ought to be very suspicious of the words of Bill Gross and the role that PIMCO/Greenspan is playing as a mover and shaker for CNBC/Bloomberg.

I note that banks are investing in mortgage hedge funds, which I think is a strategy to sustain the dubious high asset values on their books. Where else did Blackstone get $2 billion to buy up mortgages from the banks? This is like a dog chasing its tail. Nothing positive will come of it.

Yesterday, BMO’s Don Coxe had it flat out wrong when he told Maria Bartiromo of CNBC that the rush into financial assets was the causative factor for the crushing of commodity prices. No, Don, commodity prices are collapsing because the consumer-driven economies in North America, Europe and Japan hit the wall. Look at the drop in home prices in the US and today as reported in the UK. This is happening through Europe and elsewhere too. The consumer wealth effect that drove commodity prices higher is now operating in reverse, thanks to housing.

Finally, we are one day from the official open of the Chinese Olympic Games, a proud moment for China, to start on the most popular Chinese number—triple-8—08-08-08. Hopefully the Games will go off with the focus on sport and not politics and business. If only that could be. But, CNBC global audiences are going to get an earful from the parent company General Electric. GE is spending a fortune on their involvement and promotion of these Games. As you know, the Olympics are mostly driven by vested interests in big business and government. I’ll bet you that the name General Electric comes up more than say Germany!

We’ll also be told, non-stop I expect, that the commodity market will boom again because China is growing so quickly, yada yada. This won’t hurt commodity prices for a couple weeks, I guess.

Anyway, I’ll be watching early tomorrow morning, and for the next couple weeks. It’s a good diversion from the market.

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Links & Charts

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International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar.

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Knobias Cara100 Tables

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Cara 100 Daily RSI-7 Charts

At least one RSI value >70:

At least one RSI value <30:

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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

Table 14: Dow 30 List

You can do this table yourself by entering the following string into the Summaries window at www.billcara2.com and then clicking on the link for Performance.

AA AIG AXP BA C CAT DD DIS GE GM HD HON HPQ IBM INTC JNJ JPM KO MCD MMM MO MRK MSFT PFE PG T UTX VZ WMT XOM

Here are the links to interactive Dow charts from Billcara2.com that I broke into groups of ten, which you can add technical indicators for as well. (list one) (list two) (list three)

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The Americas

Here is the latest session data for the exchanges of the Americas.

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Here is the latest chart for the Brazilian Bovespa stock exchange in Sao Paulo.

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Here is the latest session data for the Toronto Stock Exchange composite index.

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Sector ETF Summary for the US equity market

The tables I show in this section are for ten (GICS) Sector Index Funds (ETF's) only, but they cover the full spectrum of the US equity market.

Table 1: Cara ETF List

You can do this table yourself by entering the following string into the Summary window at Billcara2.com and then clicking on the link for Performance. XLE XLB XLI XLY XLP IYH XLF SMH IYZ XLU XLK SPY . You can also add more ETF’s – up to 30 in total.

For a list of components to any ETF, go to the AMEX.com web site, and click on ETF's.

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10 (energy: XLE)

Table 2: Senior oil & gas equities

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15 (basic materials: XLB)

Table 3: Senior metals and steel equities

Table 12: Senior gold equities

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20 (industrial: XLI)

Table 4: Senior capital goods makers and transportation

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25 (consumer discretionary: XLY)

Table 5: Senior consumer discretionary equities

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30 (consumer staples: XLP)

Table 6: Senior consumer staples equities

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35 (healthcare: IYH)

Table 7: Senior healthcare equities

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40 (financial: XLF)

Table 8: Senior financial company equities

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45 (technology, semiconductor: SMH)

Table 9: Senior technology equities

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50 (telecom: IYZ)

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55 (utilities: XLU)

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International Equity Market USD-denominated ETF Review

Table 13: International equities perspective

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Japanese equity market ETF: EWJ

Here is the Japanese (EWJ) equity market ETF Daily data charts:

Interactive EWJ Daily data:

Interactive EWJ Weekly data:

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U.K. equity market ETF

Here is the United Kingdom (EWU) equity market ETF Daily data charts:

Interactive EWU Daily data:

EWU Daily data:

Interactive EWU Weekly data:

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Canada's equity market

Here is the Canadian (EWC) equity market ETF Daily data charts:

Interactive EWC Daily data:

Interactive EWC Weekly data:

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Bonds & Yields Review

Table 10: Yahoo Finance U.S. Treasury Debt, Municipal and Corporate Bond Yields

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Here is the $USB 30-year Treasury Bond chart.

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US Bond Funds -- Interactive Daily Data Charts

SHY Daily data series chart:

IEF Daily data series chart:

TLT Daily data series chart:

AGG Daily data series chart:

LQD Daily data series chart:

TIP Daily data series chart:

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Table 11: Interest-sensitive securities

Consumer Finance -USA -- Interactive Daily Data Charts

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Commodities Review

$CRB Index

Open Futures Contracts

Interactive Chart of Daily CRB Commodities Index:

Interactive Chart of Weekly CRB Commodities Index:

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Oil Review

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

Interactive Chart of Daily Crude Oil:

Interactive Chart of Weekly Crude Oil:

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Gold & Precious Metals Review

Spot gold chart for the week

Interactive Chart of Daily Gold EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive Chart of Weekly Gold EOD Continuous Contract Index:

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Spot silver chart for the week

Interactive daily data

Interactive Chart of Daily Silver EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive chart of the Silver Bullion index.

Interactive Chart of Weekly Silver EOD Continuous Contract Index:

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Spot platinum chart for the past three days

Interactive Chart of Daily Platinum EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive Chart of Weekly Platinum EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive chart of the Platinum metal index.

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Spot palladium chart for the week

Interactive Chart of Daily Palladium EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive Chart of Weekly Palladium EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive chart of the Palladium metal index.

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Interactive Chart of Weekly Copper EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive Chart of Daily Copper EOD Continuous Contract Index:

Interactive chart of the Copper metal index.

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Table 12: Senior gold equities

To watch the moves in precious metal miners, you will have to monitor the individual stock charts, preferably in real-time, as follows:

NEM ABX AU GFI GG HMY AUY KGC BVN
Interactive Daily data
Interactive Weekly data

MDG LIHRY AEM BGO IAG EGO RGLD GOLD CDE GRS
Interactive Daily data
Interactive Weekly data

CBJ SSRI SIL NG KRY UXG GRZ TSE_HRG TSE_GUY TSE_AGI
Interactive Daily data
Interactive Weekly data

NXG GSS MNG DROOY MFN RNO RANGY MRB CLG
Interactive Daily data
Interactive Weekly data

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Here are the key Silver miners and the SLV ETF:

SLV SIL CDE HL PAAS SSRI SLW MGN

Interactive Daily data
Interactive Weekly data

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Here are the Weekly and Daily Data charts of the indexes:

Interactive Chart of Daily U.S. Goldminers Index:

Weekly U.S. Goldminers Index:

Interactive Chart of Weekly U.S. Goldminers Index:

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The U.S. goldminer share trust ETF trades under the ticker symbol GDX.

Here are the U.S. Goldminer ETF (GDX) index Weekly and Daily data charts:

GDX Daily data:

GDX Weekly data:

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The Toronto Exchange-listed goldminer iUnits S&P/TSX Capped Gold Index ETF trades under the ticker symbol TSE:XGD. Yes, just like GDX on the AMEX, you can trade XGD on Toronto.

Here are the Weekly and Daily data charts for the TSX Goldshares (XGD) index:

Interactive Chart of XGD Daily data:

Interactive Chart of XGD Weekly data:

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Forex Review

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

Interactive Chart of Daily U.S. Dollar Index:

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Interactive Chart of Daily Euro Dollar Index, priced in USD:

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Daily British Pound Index:

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Daily Japanese Yen Index:

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Daily Canadian Dollar Index:

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Wrap-up