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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (23305)	2/10/2005 2:28:19 PM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 116555

Mining metals Despite rock-solid demand markets have grown nervous about metals' prospects LISA WRIGHT BUSINESS REPORTER Hard rock mining has been on quite a roll over the last few years, which of course has everyone wondering when the cyclical sector is finally going to hit the wall. You can't help but expect base metal prices to gear down a bit in 2005 after a few banner years of record highs and seemingly insatiable demand from commodity-hungry China for the stuff found underground. The more bearish market watchers aren't warning that the industry will cave in any time soon but they do caution that the pace of China's growth will slow down a notch later this year and that commodity prices will likely ease off alongside. The bulls meanwhile insist investors should put the pedal to the metals stocks since supply will continue to be tight, which could mean even higher prices this year that will boost the sector's stocks. "I think there are more peaks ahead of this for all of the base metals," says mining analyst Ray Goldie of Salman Partners. "The prices aren't necessarily going significantly higher but they're going to stay high longer than most people are anticipating," he says. Although the recent record high prices for key metals like nickel and copper may retreat a bit, the general consensus among analysts is that metals haven't run out of gas yet and should experience at least another year or so of solid prices. "I still think we have a way to go. I'm a believer that China is not going to fall out of bed completely like some people think it is. They've been the biggest consumer of metals over the last few years," says Craig Porter, manager of the Altamira Resource Fund. The mutual fund, which was launched in 1989, is weighted about 30 per cent in base metals stocks, 25 per cent in precious metals shares and the rest in energy stocks. It was up 29 per cent last year. thestar.com

To: RealMuLan who wrote (23305)	2/10/2005 4:25:58 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

January U.S. budget deficit surplus $8.7B [this sounds odd a deficit surplus - mish] Thursday, February 10, 2005 7:29:41 PM afxpress.com WASHINGTON (AFX) - The U.S. federal government ran a surplus of $8.7 billion in January, the Treasury Department said Thursday Receipts were up 9.2 percent year-over-year to $202.2 billion, while outlays grew 3.8 percent to $193.6 billion. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office had estimated January's surplus would be about $12 billion, figuring on receipts of $201 billion and outlays of $188 billion At the time, the CBO figured that outlays were reduced about $9 billion compared with the previous January by the timing of Social Security and other payments. Absent the timing issue, the budget would have been roughly balanced in January So far in fiscal 2005, the government has run a deficit of $109.2 billion, about $22 billion less than last year at this time, Treasury said For all of 2005, the CBO projects a deficit of about $400 billion, including supplemental spending on anti-terrorism and Iraq. The administration is projecting a deficit of $427 billion Individual income-tax receipts totaled $110.8 billion in January and $324.7 billion so far in the year, up 8.4 percent year-to-date Corporate income taxes totaled $7 billion in January and $71 billion for the year, up 49.4 percent year-to-date Social insurance taxes totaled $54.4 billion in January and $179.2 billion for the year, up 5.5 percent This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com