<September 9 to coincide with Friedland's appearance at the New York Gold Show).>
Umh, didn't know that, I'll be marking that one on my calendar for timing purposes. Big gold show, perhaps that marks the final top of this move?? If anybody goes, maybe we could get a report here on the crowd size?
The Snow mission devaluation has some very disruptive loopbacks for the markets, especially for the GSE and UST recycling operations:
Associated Press
Report: U.S. Treasury Secretary Snow to ask Japanese officials to allow yen's appreciation
Sunday August 31, 1:36 am ET
TOKYO (AP) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow will urge Japan to allow the yen to rise in value when he meets with top Japanese officials this week, a major business newspaper reported Sunday.
Snow, who is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Monday in Tokyo, will ask Japan to stop intervening in the currency markets, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, citing anonymous diplomatic sources.
Earlier this year, Japanese authorities repeatedly stepped into global foreign currency markets to curb the yen's rise, fearing a strong currency could hamper a nascent export-led rebound.
A weaker yen makes Japanese exports cheaper and boosts the value of overseas revenues when converted into yen. It also tends to lift shares of Japan's biggest exporters, which are the economy's main engine of growth.
The Finance Ministry announced last month that it spent 9.07 trillion yen (US$75.6 billion) buying U.S. dollars in the first seven months of the year -- shattering its old currency intervention record of 7.64 trillion yen in 1999.
Efforts to stem the yen's strength, however, has raised the ire of U.S. companies, which say they give Japanese businesses an unfair advantage.
Snow, who will also travel to China, believes that Tokyo and Beijing have weakened their currencies too much and are obstructing market forces, the Nikkei said.
The treasury secretary is set to wrap up his Asian tour in Thailand at the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Sept. 4-5.
Japanese media reported Snow arrived in Japan Saturday, but it was not clear what his weekend plans were. Calls to officials at the U.S. Embassy, Finance Ministry and Foreign Ministry went unanswered Sunday. |
