It's Getting Ugly Betty

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 07:56 | Categorized as

05/08/11 -- Having fallen USD5.30/barrel yesterday, NYMEX crude has already added a further USD2.50/barrel to those losses by 8am this morning.

The overnight grains currently see corn down 10 cents, wheat down 12 cents and beans down 18-20 cents.

With the DJIA falling more than 500 points last night Asian markets have also collapsed this morning with the Japanese stock market falling 3.7% and Hong Kong's by 4.6%. Even gold is lower as everybody scrambles to get out of everything all at the same time.

The FTSE100 has just opened 138 points lower, for a fall of 2.5%.

Japan, the world's largest buyer of corn, has stepped in to devalue the yen which will make imports more expensive.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned that the bloc's debt crisis is spreading. Thanks for the heads up on that one Jose, we hadn't noticed until you brought it up.

The pound is up to 1.1550 against the euro, and now seems to be eyeing a push through the 1.16 level, we haven't spent any length of time that high since March. Which is convenient for me as I'm going to Portugal next week, and it looks like I may be able to afford a beer or two after all.

Today I'm taking the day off to go shopping for a mankini....but I'll give you one of my famous predictions before I go, London wheat to open three quid down.

By the way, watch out for the US jobs data this afternoon, a further rise in unemployment (which is NOT what is expected) could be catastrophic.