InformedTrades

Brett King says they're the first bank in the world that is not issuing a plastic ATM/Debit/Credit Card for its customers, and instead utilizing the NFC (Near-Field Communication) capability of a phone to act as a payment device. "The epiphany came when we realized the future of banking is really about context. Banking is no longer about a place you go to, it is something you do," said King. Movenbank will be starting with the available Android based NFC phones, and then looking at NFC enabled devices on the Nokia/Microsoft platform along with RIM devices. "Of course, when Apple releases an NFC-enabled iPhone, we'll be delighted to go that route also. We're also looking at ways to help people without an NFC-enabled phone to use NFC stickers or similar," said King.

First days have a bullish bias, and since 2003 the SP500 has closed higher 65.7% of the time on the first day of the month, versus only 54.8% when we look at all days.  This week's chart reveals that if a person had been invested only on the first day of the month, he would have beaten buy and hold.  The two plots are hypothetical equity curves based solely on the SP500 Index, and discounting dividends, interest, transaction costs, and other factors which would matter for real investing.  The point in doing this is not to calculate real performance, but rather to demonstrate the phenomenon. 

Breakdown of foreign exchange reserve holdings by central banks. 

"Should economic performance deteriorate, monetary policy will respond," Bullard said, according to slides of a presentation he was scheduled to make . "The Fed is not now, or ever, 'out of ammunition'." With interest rates near zero, Bullard said, the Fed can support the economy through inflation and inflation expectations and asset purchases are a "potent tool".

China marked a new milestone on its road towards superpower status on Thursday night by putting its first research module - called the Heavenly Palace - into orbit. The unmanned Tiangong 1 laboratory, launched from a remote base in the Gobi desert, is a step towards the construction of a fully-fledged orbiting platform.

In addition, say officials involved in the discussions, the IMF is also weighing whether to sell bonds in private markets on short notice, a move that could bolster its safety net beyond $1.3 trillion. The IMF has never sold bonds of this sort, and the U.S. and Germany among others have resisted such moves out of concern that the IMF would have too much independence from its major shareholders. It's not clear whether that opposition has lessened with the ongoing global financial turmoil.

We've talked about this before, the fact that Ben Bernanke is growing increasingly vocal about his skepticism that monetary policy can do much to save this economy. This is a HUGE change from someone who once said that the Great Depression was entirely the Fed's fault, and that the Fed would never let that happen again!

Almost 500 votes were submitted for 90+ people. The list ranged far and wide, with many nominees. I thought it was more intriguing than the Business Week piece, with far less sell side names and far more interesting, thoughtful suggestions. Kudos to TBP readers for your intriguing perspectives.

On Monday the domestic gold price was trading at a record premium to the international price of 11 percent, according to Ho Chi Minh City Securities, a local stockbroker. On Tuesday morning, the premium had moderated to nearly 9 percent but remained much higher than the typical premium of 1 or 2 percent.

The Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the Navy plans to deploy vessels in the Atlantic Ocean near the US sea borders. "Just like the global hegemony that is present near our marine borders, we … also plan to establish a strong presence near US marine borders," IRNA quoted Sayyari as saying on Tuesday.

Big data and sentiment analysis can do amazing things, whether it's in the enterprise or in the quest to create compelling applications and experiences for consumers. But can technology trends such as these actually predict major real-world events? As sci-fi as it may sound, that's exactly what researcher Kalev Leetaru was able to accomplish with a little help from SGI's Altix UV supercomputer packing 8.2 teraflops of processing power. Leetaru, a digital media analytics expert at the University of Illinois, wrote software that can scan over 100 million news articles and uses sentiment analysis, text geocoding and predictive analytics to determine when political upheaval will go from rowdy to revolutionary.

The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states. In a document distributed to the IMF steering committee at the weekend, Ms Lagarde said: "The fund's credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-casescenarios. Our lending capacity of almost $400bn looks comfortable today, but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders."

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Moslehi told IRNA on Sunday that the intervention of the Intelligence Ministry and the arrest of those cooperating with the BBC were aimed at preventing others from falling into the trap of the British spy agency. The Iranian minister said that the arrests were made as quickly as possible and marked the beginning of the intelligence ministry's involvement in this case. He warned that his ministry would act decisively and unrelentlessly. "While claiming to be an independent media they try to use the support of the US and UK governments and international organizations to obstruct Iran ['s path]."

Tripling IMF resources was part of the Group of 20 leaders' response to the global recession in 2009. As the European debt crisis threatens to spread and further damp the global recovery, the IMF was asked by its steering committee today to review whether its resources are sufficient.

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.