Did you know that Turkish banks as a group will show net profit this quarter of 39%+ year over year — an all-time high.
Turkey’s T.C. Agricultural Bank Head Office building, built by Italian architect Giulio Mongeri between 1926-1929.
In November, China’s apparent oil consumption rose by + 0.94 million barrels per day, year over year, to a new record high of 10.5 million barrels per day. So much for China falling off the map.
CIVETS (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa) are the new BRICS after outperforming last year, and they are breaking out again and near all-time highs as an index vs. overall emerging markets, which are well off the all-time high.
Last week I highlighted a platinum shortage as auto manufacturing ramps up for 2013. Platinum is now up for five straight days and is only 4% from the highs of the last 12 months. Gold can’t say that. Platinum is going higher, especially as others are now turning their attention to the metal.
Emerging markets vs. domestic markets are back to earth and back to outperform. Emerging markets got overbought vs. domestic markets, now down seven out of nine days. With earnings season and Apple (AAPL, quote) heaviness, favor emerging markets back over domestic markets, possibly ready to retake the next level of .32 which didn’t happen in late December.