Thought-Provoking Information Snippets from the Weekend

Well, while the weather was so frightening, we cancelled our weekend trip, I still could put in some hours on the bicycle. And with falling rain drops, I was able to catch up with some reading. I ended up with some note I wanted to share with you:

1. Gold is close to its high. Well, not in USD, but with the recent EUR weakness in the currency I pay my bills with. Its around 1.300 EUR now - very close to the peak.
2. EUR vs. USD looks really ugly from a technical / chart perspective. A little more downward movement of the EUR could trigger a stampede of chart traders to get out of it.
3. Remaining with FX topics, I did hear on a podcast, that the Swiss National Bank had to sell CHF close to 10 % of Swiss GDP in the last 2 months in order to keep the rate to the EUR at a level close to 1,20. As you will remember, the SNB announced it will tie the CHF to the EUR at this level - a move to avoid further currency appreciation as money was fleeing the the save haven of the Swiss Alps. Question that comes to mind: what are they buying with all that paper money? Guess I will try to investigate on this topic in the next days.
4. German Wirtschaftswoche did a list of stocks called: 'Five for Eternity'. BASF, China Mobile, Coca-Cola, Altria, Royal Dutch Shell. I own four of them!!
5. And a couple of pages further: 'Five in Megatrend Ag'. Potash, Syngenta, CF Industries, Bunge, KWS-Saat. I own none of them!?? 
6. Have you ever heard about Li Ning? Why not? And if so - tried to invest in it? Why do I still know so little about Chinese companies?
7. Outlook is muddy. Stocks performed quite well in the last week and especially blue-chips looked like they would break up. I liked US ones, as I would guess that the EUR remains week. Still, Friday news from Spain did put pressure on the indices and with Murcia following Valencia in demanding help from central government, I fear the next days will show some more downward pressure.
8. Several Californian cities declared bankruptcy in the last days: Stockton, San Bernardino, Mammoth Lakes.
9. EURIBOR dropped to 0.451 % now. Adding 0.7 %, our mortgage would be adjusted to 1.151 % at the end of the quarter - should the rate stay that low. Denmark 'pays' negative interest of -0.2 % now as target rate. Germany, Netherlands, Austria and some others are also at negative bond rates now. And Spain moved above 7 % and has close to EUR 80 bn to refinance this year.

Crazy stuff ...