KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Wednesday November 19 Housing and Economic stories

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Wednesday November 19 Housing and Economic stories

The World Economy Is In Bad Shape, Especially Europe - (www.bloomberg.com) The world economy is in its worst shape in two years, with the euro area and emerging markets deteriorating and the danger of deflation rising, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll of international investors. A plurality of 38 percent of those surveyed this week described the global economy as worsening, more than double the number who said that in the last poll in July and the most since September 2012, when Europe was mired in a recession. Much of the concern is again focused on the euro area: Almost two-thirds of those polled said its economy was weakening while 89 percent saw disinflation or deflation as a greater threat there than inflation over the next year.

Russia Braces for 'Catastrophic' Drop in Oil Prices - (www.bloomberg.com) President Vladimir Putin said Russia's economy, battered by sanctions and a collapsing currency, faces a potential “catastrophic” slump in oil prices. Such a scenario is “entirely possible, and we admit it,” Putin told the state-run Tass news service before attending this weekend’s Group of 20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, according to a transcript e-mailed by the Kremlin today. Russia’s reserves, at more than $400 billion, would allow the country to weather such a turn of events, he said. Crude prices have fallen by almost a third this year, undercutting the economy in Russia, the world’s largest energy exporter.

Venezuela Dollar Income Falls 30% on Lower Oil Prices - (www.bloomberg.com) Venezuela lost 30 percent of its foreign exchange revenue in the last month because of a “tremendous” drop in oil prices, President Nicolas Maduro said. Venezuela’s average oil-export price last week fell to $72.80 a barrel, the lowest in four years, pushing the yield on the country’s benchmark bonds to almost 19 percent for the first time since the global financial crisis. Oil accounts for 97 percent of foreign exchange income, which the country needs to pay about $28.5 billion of bond principal due in 2016. To defend oil prices, Maduro said he sent the country’s foreign minister to five oil producers, including Mexico and Russia, to drum up support ahead of the Nov. 27 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which Venezuela co-founded. Back in the late 1990s, Venezuela ended a slump in oil prices by cutting production along with other OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

Keystone Left Behind as Canadian Oil Pours Into U.S. - (www.bloomberg.com) Delays of the Keystone XL pipeline are providing little obstacle to Western Canadian oil producers getting their crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast, with shipments set to more than double next year. The volume of Canadian crude processed at Gulf Coast refineries could climb to more than 400,000 barrels a day in 2015 from 208,000 in August, according to Jackie Forrest, vice president of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp. The increase comes as Enbridge Inc.’s Flanagan South and an expanded Seaway pipeline raise their capacity to ship oil by as much as 450,000 barrels a day. Canadian exports to the Gulf rose 83 percent in the past four years.

Marc 'Dr. Doom' Faber: I will soon be proven right - (www.cnbc.com) Marc Faber is not backing down. The famed investor known as "Dr. Doom" has been calling for a 20 percent correction in stocks for years, only to see the market continue to march higher and higher. But rather than throw in the towel or even admit that his earlier calls missed the mark, Faber says stocks could fall all the way down to his early bearish targets. On Thursday's edition of CNBC's "Futures Now," host Jackie DeAngelis played Faber a clip of comments he made more than two years ago, on Oct. 4, 2012, when he said that he has moved largely to cash because "I think within the next six to nine months, we can buy just about everything 20 percent lower." Of course, the S&P 500 has instead risen more than 40 percent to 2,040, leaving Faber's unofficial S&P target of 1,160 (a 20 percent discount from the opening price on Oct. 4, 2012) deeply in the dust. So she asked if he still sees the market falling to that level.

OTHER STORIES:

Lew warns of European 'lost decade' - (www.cnbc.com)

Fed's Dudley: Still too early to raise rates - (www.cnbc.com)

Spreading deflation across East Asia threatens fresh debt crisis - (www.telegraph.co.uk)

Fed's Plosser: Low rates 'should make us nervous' - (www.cnbc.com)

U.S. Navy Deploys Its First Laser Weapon in the Persian Gulf - (www.bloomberg.com)