On Thursday afternoon the Russian Central Bank, commonly known as ‘Bank Rossii’ lent $7.7 trillion rubles equating to $214 billion US dollars in overnight and seven-day loans to defend the Russian ruble, which has lost 18% since January 1st 2009 Currently, the Bank of Rossii has a lower limit value of 41 for the ruble A lower limit value with regards to a specific currency means that at a certain point the central bank of that nation will step into the open market and actually start ‘defending’ or buying their own currency to support the price As history has shown no central bank has ever been able to defend their own currency, particularly as mounting debts, lower revenue streams, and political and social unrest brew. Since August, Bank Rossii has spent a whopping $210 billion dollars, or more than 1/3rd of their foreign-currency reserves to support the ruble As the ruble continues to drop expect Russian American Depositary Receipt (ADRs) to suffer, as a lower ruble or any currency for that matter, makes it more expensive for borrowers to pay back debt and fuels inflation. A few Russian ADR’s to watch are Mechel Open Joint Stock (MTL), Lukoil (LUKOY), Vimpel-Communications (VIP), and Rostelecom OAO (ROS)

No Analysis added

No Analysis added

No Analysis added

No Analysis added

Consumers Trade Down Wal-Mart (WMT), the world’s largest retailer, said on Thursday that same-store sales rose by 2.1 percent in January as cash strapped consumers traded down and continued to hunt for bargains These results beat Wal-Mart’s own estimates from a month ago for sales to be flat to up 2% It is safe to extrapolate Wal-Mart’s positive results onto the broader discounted retailers, particularly those that do not sell or stock massive amounts of retail inventor. As the consumer continues to trade down companies like Family Dollar Store (FDO), Dollar Tree (DLTR), and 99 Cents Only Stores (NDN) Just recently Family Dollar Store reporting a 14% rise in quarterly profit and raised its fiscal year forecast. For the quarter that ended Nov. 29 profit rose to $59.3 million, or 42 cents per share, from $51.9 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier

No Analysis added

No Analysis added