December 26, 2012 Update

DJIA:13,139 NASDAQ:1426 10-YR TRS: yield 1.775% Oil:$88.61 EURO:$1.3183 YEN:84.81

Micro

• Toyota (NYSE:TM) has forecast its CY2013 sales under Toyota and Lexus brands to be 8.9M, +2.5% LTM from sales in CY2012. Toyota’s total production for CY2013 is 9.94M units, group sales of 9.91M units, and 8.7M units for just the Toyota and Lexus brands alone. 
• Oil prices are trading higher as investors are weary about fiscal cliff, crude climbed 0.5% to $89.06.
• Gold trading lower as investors from fiscal cliff uncertainties, however triggering commercial buyers to get involved at the lower prices in Southeast Asia, gold futures dropping 0.4% to $1,653 an ounce. 
• Morgan Stanley believes aluminum has the worst outlook of any commodity while Barclays has placed a “sell” rating on it all from delays in transporting the metal from warehouses. However, stockpiles will expand for 2013 reaching 8.67M metric tons. Bloomberg has forecast a 16% rise to $2.400 in futures for 2013, leaving doubt for the bearish. 

Macro

• SPZ: trading upwards as President Obama returns to the White House to resume fiscal cliff negotiations and propose to a “new deal.” 
• Asian Markets: trading up, the Yen has hit the lowest level against the dollar from 2011 retreating 0.4%, yet the Nekkei Average still closed up 1.5%.
• European Markets: on holiday!  
• October’s Case-Shiller home-price index will be released at 9am, home prices expected to rise from low inventory. 
• MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse data revealed that holiday retail sales have grown at the slowest rate since 2008. 
• Thailand’s Ministry of Finance has returned its 2012 GDP-growth forecast to 5.7%, with a 3.3% inflation rate.
• Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., a Chinese rating agency, on Tuesday placed the U.S. sovereign debt on a negative watch and pinpointing the lack of political consensus towards finding a solution. 
• Taro Aso has been named Japan’s sixth finance chief within the past three years. The man is known for his champion title of pork-barrel spending when he was prime minister. 

The Gift That Keeps Giving

I have received boat loads of gifts for Christmas since I can remember, but I only truly recall one present. When I was nine years old my older cousin gave me a certificate congratulating me for providing a $10 micro lend to a woman starting a milk farm in Africa. At the time I remember being outraged. I wanted the games, the toys, and the real estate I had specifically placed on my Christmas List. The micro lend had been disappointing. About a year later I received an email from my cousin with a link that was tracking the borrower’s progress. The African woman had purchased two cows and was already turning a profit. One of the comments was explaining how she was finally able to feed her son. To this day, I swear this is the best gift I have ever received as the effects have rippled. A micro lend is the gift that keeps giving; to both the borrower, who is able to strive for success, and to the lender, who learns about opportunity and the value of money. Even though holiday season is over, it is never to late to give the gift of monetary enlightenment and opportunity because, after all, it is always better to give than to receive.