InformedTrades

Saudi women, who are legally subject to male chaperones for almost any public activity, hailed the royal decree as an important, if limited, step toward making them equal to their male counterparts. They said the uprisings sweeping the Arab world for the past nine months - along with sustained domestic pressure for women's rights and a more representative form of government - prompted the change.

Wondering what caused the dramatic plunge in gold and silver earlier? Wonder no more: the CME's counterpart in China, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, decided to follow through with an identical, if more substantial, action to that undertaken by the CME on Friday, and announced an increase in the Silver T+D contract margin from 15% to 18%, a 20% bump; the SGE also noted an increase in the price range limit from 12% to 15%, which will be promptly fulfilled, as margin hikes traditionally tend to lead to a sudden spike in vol, contrary to well-meaning expectations. There was a second announcement, slightly more cryptic one, noting that if volatility were to persist, the SGE would outright halt silver trading (although the Google Translation of this previously unseen form announcement is a little sketchy). Expect to see more exchange intervention in precious metals today. Regardless, those who bought silver 15% lower a whopping, oh, two hours ago, courtesy of the out and out sheer panic, are quite grateful to the Chinese.

It's "too early" to determine how emerging economies can further help the euro area overcome its sovereign debt crisis because reforms are still under way, China's Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said.

According to sources, progress has been made at the G20 meeting in Washington, where global leaders piled pressure on the eurozone to fix its problems before plunging the world back into recession. In a G20 communique issued on Friday, the world's leading economies set themselves a six-week deadline to resolve the crisis - to unveil a solution by the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4. Sources said the plan would have to be released as a whole, as the elements would not work in isolation.

Apple is quietly denying requests for employee vacations during the second week of October, hinting that the company currently anticipates an influx of customers to its stores around that time related to availability of its new iOS 5 and fifth-generation iPhone products. More specifically, the iPhone maker has in some locations blacked out vacation time for employees from October 9th through 12th and October 14th through 15th, according to people familiar with the matter.

Faber explains how gold is overbought and US dollar strength could continue until greater easing from the Fed is announced.

Get ready, America-net neutrality finally comes to the Internet on November 20, 2011. That's the plan, at least. The FCC has just filed its final "open Internet" rules (PDF) with the Federal Register, which will publish them tomorrow and make them official. The rules go into effect on November 20, nearly a year after they were passed over Republican opposition on a 3-2 vote. (One of the FCC Commissioners who voted against the rules now works for Comcast.) But the plan will likely be derailed by lawsuits. Two, by Verizon and MetroPCS, were filed earlier this year but tossed because the rules had yet to be finalized. With tomorrow's printing in the Federal Register, the litigation floodgates will be thrown open and and complaints about the government overstepping its authority can start pouring in.

The Commerce Department would begin treating currency undervaluation as a subsidy according to US trade law. The Treasury would start calling out countries for having "fundamentally misaligned" currencies (one step before manipulated), and trigger actions to address them. The US would oppose any rules about IMF structural changes that "misaligned" currency countries support.

An international team of scientists said on Thursday they had recorded sub-atomic particles traveling faster than light -- a finding that could overturn one of Einstein's long-accepted fundamental laws of the universe.

According to Lee Younghee, "We'll be pursuing our rights for this in a more aggressive way from now on." She also added that Apple has been "freeriding" on Samsung's wireless communication technology patents. That aligns rather nicely with comments made by an unnamed Samsung executive to the Korea Times, promising to come after the iPhone 5 in Korea as soon as its debuted. That exec mentioned that the only way to avoid such litigation would be if Apple removed "mobile telecommunications functions" from the iPhone.

The euro surged on Friday after Japanese news agency Jiji reported that Group of 20 officials would confirm their intent to cooperate internationally to prevent a worsening of the euro zone's debt crisis and were working on an emergency statement.

Google Employees in Spain are getting a surprise SIM card with their Nexus S phones these days.  What you see above and below is Google's own SIM card which allows the 'sorta search monopolist' to become a MVNO in Spain.  While Google doesn't own its own towers or infrastructure (it buys bulk data from the local telecoms - in this case Telefonica, Vodafone, etc.), the move allows Google to control more of the phone experience.  For instance, it can pay one price for bulk data rather than on a per phone basis.  It can also dictate which carriers the phones pull in data from based on quality of service or price.  Roaming internationally can also be controlled and owned as well.

And weekly changes in the Dow - this last week is almost a 4 standard deviation move and third largest ever (with 9/11/01 and 10/03/08 the only two larger in absolute size!).

Nonviolent protestors occupied the Wall Street area in peaceful, yet loud, demonstrations Saturday. The event, which is being called #OccupyWallStreet and #TakeWallStreet on Twitter, included a variety of groups with different agendas.

A state-run Chinese newspaper has warned of rising Mid-East conflicts if the U.S. vetoes Palestine's bid for UN membership next week. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is expected to request UN induction next Friday, while Washington warns the move will be "counter-productive".

G7 LEADERS pledged to take "all necessary actions" to restore stability to world markets after a summit dominated by the euro zone debt crisis and the resignation of chief economist Jürgen Stark from the ECB. With the euro hitting its lowest level in six months on Friday after news broke of Mr Stark's early departure, G7 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Marseille issued a statement affirming they would take concerted action to calm the turbulence.

Korean electronics giant Samsung has launched a solar powered laptop in the Kenyan market targeting thousands of potential consumers currently locked out of the computer revolution by lack of electricity.

* IMF document warns risks to economy have risen sharply * IMF has about $390 billion it could comfortably lend now * Staff estimate funding needs may rise as high as $840 bln (Adds details on IMF meeting on gold profits, G7 summit)

Google has revealed how much energy it consumes to power YouTube, Gmal and its other services in the internet 'cloud' - and it's enough to power the capital of Utah. But bosses behind the search engine giant have launched a defence of the unprecedented reveal of its energy consumption. According to Google Senior Vice-President Urs Hoelzle, the company has maintained a carbon-neutral imprint since 2007.

Hungary may force the nation's lenders to swallow losses on foreign-currency mortgage loans by fixing the Swiss franc as much as 20 percent below prevailing rates. The plan would fix the Alpine currency's rate at 180 forint and the euro at 250 forint for the early repayment of foreign- currency mortgages, Janos Lazar of the ruling Fidesz party told a press conference today in Hajduszoboszlo, eastern Hungary. The proposal will be discussed by the Cabinet on Sept. 11 and a decision may be made the next day, a party spokesman said.