Day a??*10^2 - The Sun is Fucked - Banks Tumble
Nospam417
http://www.spaceweather.com/
Daily Sun: 20 Jan 09
Yesterday's sunspot (NOAA 1011) has rapidly faded away. The sunspot's low
latitude suggests it may have been a member of old Solar Cycle 23; the
sunspot's magnetic polarity was unusual and did not clearly identify it as a
member of either Cycle 23 or Cycle 24. Credit: SOHO/MDI
Far side of the Sun: This holographic image reveals no sunspots on the far
side of the sun. Image credit: SOHO/MDI
Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 0 quiet
The Sun is spotless:
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/20jan09/midi512_blank.gif?PHPSESSID=5el5udrqdbj0c5e977slfqrlr4
Please visit:
http://blog.nj.com/southjersey_impact/2008/11/large_SolarCycle.jpg
The right panel shows the face of the Sun as it looked on a good day during
the late Modern Warm Period. Sunspots are the apparent size of craters on
the moon. The left panel shows a spotless Sun as seen today.
Please write to Al Gore so that Al knows that the Sun is not living up to
his religious expectations. Al Gore is a divinity school dropout. George
Carlin had a better grasp of the true nature of God's creation, than does Al
Gore.
Please visit:
http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsletter/images/sun-etc.jpg
which shows the relative sizes of the Sun and planets. Compared to the Sun,
Jupiter is the size of a pea, earth is the size of a grain of sand.
Australian shares hit two-month low as banks tumble
Allison Jackson | January 20, 2009
Article from: The Australian
SHARES plunged today after a profit warning from the Royal Bank of Scotland
and dire economic forecasts triggered panic selling.
The S&P/ASX 200 plunged more than 4 per cent at one stage as investors
dumped the Big Four banks.
The S&P/ASX 200 plunged more than 4 per cent at one stage as investors
dumped the Big Four banks.
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Woodside Petroleum led the mining and energy
sectors sharply lower after aluminium slumped 4 per cent to a five-year low
and crude oil weakened.
The benchmark index pared losses this afternoon to finish down 112.7 points,
or 3.1 per cent, to 3476.6, the lowest close since November 24.
The All Ordinaries ended down 106 points to 3425.
The Australian dollar sank back below US66 cents as the negative sentiment
spread to Asian markets and eroded demand for risky currencies.
Japan's Nikkei fell 2.9 per cent as Mizuho Financial Group and other banks
slid on worries over the European banking sector while reports Toyota was
considering shedding another 3000 temporary workers due to worsening sales
weighed on shares.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 3.3 per cent.
Traders said it was hard to tell if this was the beginning of another
"downward trend".
"Feels like a lot of nervousness . that we are starting to see another round
of downgrades and writedowns in the banks," said one institutional dealer.
With Wall Street closed for the Martin Luther King Jnr holiday, investors
took their cue from European markets.
Cameron Stockbrokers client adviser Adrian Leppinus said: "The market has
gone into plain selling mode.
"Normally we look at the US and we can get some direction, but because we
didn't have that everyone has looked at the banking crisis in the UK and is
thinking what happens there may well happen here."
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 1.7 per cent to 189.62 amid
concerns the UK Government's latest move to prop up the ailing financial
sector would be insufficient, while the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) warned
it could be on track to produce the biggest annual loss in UK corporate
history.
RBS shares fell as much as 71 per cent at one stage.
Adding to woes, the European Commission warned the Eurozone region would
contract by 1.9 per cent this year, revising a forecast made in November for
growth of 0.1 per cent, and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude
Trichet said the global economic outlook was "substantially" worse than the
ECB predicted last month.
Standard & Poor's also downgraded Spain's credit rating.
National Australia Bank led the Big Four banks lower, falling 5.4 per cent
to $18.39. dropped 3.7 per cent to $15.50, Westpac. ANZ gave up 5.1 per cent
to $13.70 and Commonwealth Bank shed 3.9 per cent to $26.35.
The sell-off has come at a particular bad time for Westpac which is offering
shareholders the chance to increase their stake in the bank through a share
purchase plan, priced at $16 a share.
BHP Billiton fell 4.7 per cent to $28.95 a day after Credit Suisse
downgraded its recommendation and earnings forecasts for the miner as well
as taking the axe to its forecasts for aluminium and copper prices.
Rio Tinto dropped 6.3 per cent to $37.99 as it struggled to sell assets due
to the global credit crunch.
Woodside Petroleum was down 2.5 per cent to $33.43 after crude fell in
overnight trading, with the March Brent contract on London's ICE futures
exchange dropping $US2.21 at $US44.36 a barrel.
IG Markets head of dealing Oliver Stevens said: "People have looked at what's
happening in the UK with the housing market and rising unemployment and the
effect that is having on bad debts and are thinking that's what we are
heading for.
"We are probably six to nine months behind the UK market but we seem to be
accelerating towards it."
The Australian dollar fell to US65.98 cents from yesterday's close of
US68.12c after the weak lead from European shares and lower commodity prices
sapped demand for risky currencies.
Investors around the world are pinning their hopes on US president-elect,
Barack Obama, swiftly enacting an $US825 billion ($1247 billion) stimulus
package to drag the world's biggest economy out of the worst recession in
decades.
But forecaster Access Economics said yesterday any action in the US will be
too late to save Australia from recession this year as the Chinese economy
grinds to a halt.
The grim forecast, coupled with a key inflation gauge showing Australia was
heading for a period of deflation, was followed by a warning from Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday that the impact of the global financial crisis
would be "big".
Post-Christmas sales figures appear to confirm the dire outlook.
Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey told the ABC today that sales in the
first few weeks of
January were "not good".