Forex - China’s Confidence on Dollar Pushes Greenback Up

The U.S. dollar climbed today after a Chinese Foreign Ministry official stated that the believes in the stability of the greenback, and informed that he is unaware of discussions next week during the G8 meeting regarding eventual substitutes for the dollar as the world main reserve currency.

The dollar hit yesterday a three-week low versus the euro after Reuters affirmed that China was discussing the possibility of bringing up the reserve currency topic in the following G8 meeting to take place next week in Italy. Today, the Chinese minister comments reverted the following trend reaffirming that China, at least for the moment, supports the dollar as the main global reserve currency, helping the greenback to stop the negative trend and gain versus the euro. This Thursday, a report may indicate another negative unemployment data in the U.S., which can push the greenback further down if confirmed.

The reserve currency issue is weighing negatively on the dollar, according to economists. Even if nothing will change at least in the short term future, rumors tend to amplify pessimism among traders, and consequences can be significant to the U.S. dollar as long as the reserve currency topic will be brought by news agencies and Government officials. Until next week’s G8 meeting, the dollar will be under pressure.

Plan to bury Michael Jackson at Neverland fizzles

A plan to bury Michael Jackson at his sprawling Neverland ranch fizzled Wednesday, leaving details about his funeral undecided as another mystery was solved: His newly unveiled will says his mother should raise his children, or failing her, Diana Ross.

The investigation into the singer's death, meanwhile, deepened late Wednesday when the Drug Enforcement Administration was asked to step in by the Los Angeles Police Department, a law enforcement official in Washington told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The changing funeral circumstances thwarted many Jackson fans who had descended on the estate in the rolling hills near Santa Barbara with the hope of attending a public viewing.

"We're terribly disappointed," said Ida Barron, 44, who arrived with her husband Paul Barron, 56, intending to spend several days in a tent.

"We were going to listen to music and watch Michael Jackson DVDs and party all night long, not just to have fun, but in memory of Michael Jackson," Paul Barron said. "Now we're going to have to just go home."

Jackson's 7-year-old will, filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles court, gives his entire estate to a family trust and names his 79-year-old mother Katherine and his children as beneficiaries. The will also estimates the current value of his estate at more than $500 million.

Katherine Jackson was appointed their guardian, with entertainer Diana Ross, a longtime friend of Michael Jackson, named successor guardian if something happens to his mother. Ross introduced the Jackson 5 on the Ed Sullivan Show in the late 1960s and was instrumental in launching their career.

Meanwhile, Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine said a public memorial was in the works for Jackson but wouldn't be held at Neverland. In addition, it appeared more likely that a funeral and burial would take place in Los Angeles, a person familiar with the situation told the AP.

But the person, who is not authorized to speak for the family and requested anonymity, said nothing was planned for Neverland, at least through Friday.

The person said billionaire Thomas Barrack, who owns Neverland in a joint venture with Jackson, sought an exemption to bury the singer at the ranch. But the person says it's a complicated process and it couldn't be done for a burial this week.

"The family is aware a Neverland burial is not possible. They are expected to make decisions about whatever funeral and memorial service" will take place, the person said.

Heavy construction equipment and workers were seen passing through the wrought-iron gates of Neverland on Tuesday. It wasn't clear what they were doing. The property is about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

At once a symbol of Jackson's success and excesses, Neverland — nestled in wine country — became the site of a makeshift memorial after his death.

In Los Angeles, Jackson's lawyer John Branca and family friend John McClain, a music executive, were named in the will as co-executors of his estate. In a statement, they said the most important element of the will was Jackson's steadfast desire that his mother become the legal guardian for his children.

"As we work to carry out Michael's instructions to safeguard both the future of his children as well as the remarkable legacy he left us as an artist, we ask that all matters involving his estate be handled with the dignity and the respect that Michael and his family deserve," the statement said.

The will doesn't name father Joe Jackson to any position of authority in administering the estate.

The executors moved quickly to take control of all of Michael Jackson's property, going to court hours after filing the will to challenge a previous ruling that gave Katherine Jackson control of 2,000 items from Neverland.

Paul Gordon Hoffman, an attorney for the executors, told Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff his clients are the proper people to take over Jackson's financial affairs. He called Katherine Jackson's speed in getting limited power over her son's property "a race to the courthouse that is frankly improper."

Judge Beckloff urged attorneys from both sides to try to reach a compromise.

"I would like the family to sit down and try to make this work so that we don't have a difficult time in court," the judge said. A hearing on the estate was set for Monday.

The will, dated July 7, 2002, gives the entire estate to the Michael Jackson Family Trust. Details of the trust will not be made public.

The documents said Jackson's estate consisted almost entirely of "non-cash, non-liquid assets, including primarily an interest in a catalog of music royalty rights which is currently being administered by Sony ATV, and the interests of various entities."

Jackson owns a 50 percent stake in the massive Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalog, which includes music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga and the Jonas Brothers.

Jackson was recently in shaky financial health. In the most detailed account yet of the singer's tangled financial empire, documents obtained by The Associated Press show Jackson claimed to have a net worth of $236.6 million as of March 31, 2007.

Jackson, who died June 25 at age 50, left behind three children: son Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11; and son Prince Michael II, 7. Debbie Rowe was the mother of the two oldest children; the youngest was born to a surrogate mother, who has never been identified.

Katherine Jackson was granted temporary guardianship Monday. A judge held off on requests to control the children's estates.

Rowe, who was married to Jackson in 1996 and filed for divorce three years later, surrendered her parental rights. An appeals court later found that was done in error, and Rowe and Jackson entered an out-of-court settlement in 2006.

Neither Rowe nor her attorneys have indicated whether she intends to seek custody of the two oldest children.

Health - iPhone Apps Can Help You Lose Weight

I have an iPhone. I know they’re all the rage and everything, and that’s actually not the reason I got one. I got an iPhone because my boyfriend and I are on the same cell phone plan and he decided that he wanted one and I figured hey why not, I’d love to be able to check my emails and look at the internet more easily anyways, considering how often I’m online to do my various business and non business activities. I’ve found the iPhone to now be indispensable personally, like I don’t know what I did with a “regular” cell phone before this or something. Talk about victim of technology!

One of the best things of course about the iPhone and probably what has make it catch on so fast are the vast number of “apps” it has to offer. You can do everything from download fun apps that are full of sound effects, to downloading compasses that will show you where to go when you’re on some national park trail. The thing really is quite amazing, and I think it’s the invention that has sort of defined the twenty first century, I dare say! One of the other things you can do with this phone is download several different kinds of apps that will help in your quest to lose weight.

The most notable of these types of apps are the ones that help you to calculate calories. There is also one that will help you to figure out how many calories a day you are allowed if you enter in your current weight, and the amount of time you want to go by to get your desired weight. Say for example, you want to figure out how many less calories you need to consume to be able to lose ten pounds in two months. There is an app that will calculate for you how many less calories you need to eat to achieve that in that amount of time.

There are also fast food calorie counter apps, where you can find the amount of calories in a vast array of common fast foods like McDonald’s double cheeseburgers (one of my weaknesses, I must admit), pizza chains pizza, and KFC, for example. Because we don’t necessarily realize how many calories are in these foods when we are forced to get them out of convenience, then if we have an application that can tell us, it may help us to make smarter choices when we’re on the road, or at least help us come to the conclusion that fast food usually is way high in calories for what you get and for how full it keeps you.

So, not only can the phone work for you in ways that make your life much simpler and much more high tech and information getting, it can also help you in your weight loss goals by providing you with the tools you need to make the right decisions when it comes to your diet. Hey, they probably even have exercise apps to help you out with that part of losing weight too!

Forex - Summer Trading Technique!

In the summer, all financial markets havea tendency to die down and become more calm. Why? Because the very biggest of traders tend to take long summer vacations. In fact, many of the biggest traders may be out the entire summer (in stocks, forex, etc.). They will leave only “junior traders” on their trading desks which don’t have the authority to throw around the big bucks.Therefore, the markets in the summer (FX included) tends to be somewhat range bound. Therefore, I’d suggest taking this approach. Buy fundamentally strong currencies on pull backs and earn their higher yields daily while playing only the “long” side of the range. That way, if you get a breakout in the direction of the major uptrend, you’re still in the game and never counter to it. So being a buyer of AUD/USD or AUD/JPY for instance, on its pull backs could be a way to play this.

Forex - British Pound “Pauses for Breath” [Part 1 of 2]

After a nearly 20% rise against the Dollar, the British Pound has been rangebound for nearly the entire month of June, with one columnist likening the situation to a “pause for breath.” For him, this amounts to a temporary cessation on the Pound’s inevitable upward path: “Compared to long term levels, the pound was still better value than its peers. He said: ‘It’s still cheap - about 10% below it’s trade-weighted average at present.’ ” For others analysts, however, the picture is not so cut-and-dried.

Forgetting about purchasing power parity for a minute, there are numerous factors which could halt the Pound’s rise. First and foremost is the British economy, which is still struggling to find its feet. “The U.K. economy will recover ‘mildly’ next year, according to the OECD, compared with a previous projection of a 0.2 percent contraction. Gross domestic product will drop 4.3 percent this year, versus a March forecast of 3.7 percent.”

Some economic indicators have begun to stabilize, but the two most important sectors, housing and finance, are still wobbly. Economists warn that “any recovery could be slow and uneven because banks are still unwilling to pump loans into the economy.” In the latest month for which data is available, mortgage lending slowed to a record low, with consumer lending not far behind. With regard to housing,”The annual fall in house prices in England and Wales slowed for a third consecutive month in June, according to property data company Hometrack, but prices were still 8.7 percent lower than a year ago.”

There is the possibility that the BOE’s quantitative easing plan and the government’s fiscal stimulus will provide the economy with the boost it needs. At the same time, both programs will have to be reined at some point, sooner rather than later in the case of government spending. With UK national debt predicted to reach 90% of GDP by 2010, “Most people - the prime minister excepted, apparently - believe that taxes will have to rise and/or public spending fall after the next election. This would at least threaten to hold back economic activity.” Not to mention that both QE and government spending could actually backfire and generate inflation without economic growth (i.e. stagflation). BOE Governor Mervyn King captured this overall sentiment, when he said, “I feel more uncertain now than ever. This is not the pattern of a recession coming into recovery that we’ve seen since the 1930s.”

In short, from a purely economic standpoint, it doesn’t look good for the Pound Sterling. But of course forex is about much more than GDP…stay tuned for Part 2, in which I’ll elaborate on this point, and bring interest rates and inflation into the discussion.