Daily Dispatches

U.S. Mint Bans
Melting Pennies, Nickels

By Matin Crutsinger
Associated Press
Thursday, December 14, 2006

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061214/ap_on_bi_ge/mint_coins

Given rising metal prices, the pennies and nickels in your pocket are worth more melted down than their face value -- and that has the government worried.

U.S. Mint officials said Wednesday they were putting into place rules prohibiting the melting down of 1-cent and 5-cent coins. The rules also limit the number of coins that can be shipped out of the country.

By Jeffrey Saut
Chief Investment Strategist
Raymond James Financial Inc.
Monday, December 11, 2006

http://www.raymondjames.com/inv_strat.htm

Well, it finally happened. Last week one of my own gang called me Doctor Doom. I guess it was inevitable because in this business if you are not forecasting Dow 20,000 you are deemed a bear. However, the veiled reference to Doctor Doom and Doctor Gloom of an era gone by is not exactly appropriate. Indeed, the dynamic duo of Dr. Henry Kaufman (Doctor Doom) and Dr. Albert Wojnilower (Doctor Gloom) were the market gurus of the day in the 1970s and were predicting the end of the economic world as we knew it. Clearly that has not been our mantra, as anyone reading these missives since 1999 knows.

Gold Index Takes Global Turn,
but Canadian Names Dominate

New S&P Vehicle More Inviting
to Investors Seeking Commodity Play

By David Parkinson
The Globe and Mail, Toronto
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061213.RGOLD13/TPStor...

Farewell, S&P/TSX capped gold index. Hello, world.

After the end of trading this Friday, Standard & Poor's, the Toronto Stock Exchange's index provider, will no longer publish its separate subindex of the Canadian gold mining stocks contained in the S&P/TSX composite index. In its place Monday morning will be the S&P/TSX global gold index, which will exist outside of the composite and will be made up not just of Canadian gold stocks, but of all the world's biggest publicly traded gold miners.

J.P. Morgan Names Cutler Counsel

By Peter Lattman
The Wall Street Journal
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Stephen M. Cutler, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP and a former enforcement chief at the Securities and Exchange Commission, was named general counsel for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Mr. Cutler, who plans to join the company in February, will also head the bank's legal and compliance activities worldwide. He succeeds Joan Guggenheimer, who died this year.