The fate of a proposed mining tax in Australia, the world’s biggest exporter of coal and iron ore, remains in doubt after no clear winner emerged from the weekend’s election, heightening uncertainty for investors.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 48, and opposition leader Tony Abbott, 52, will need to broker deals with lawmakers to pass legislation after neither major party won enough seats to form a government in the 150-member House of Representatives.

These positions will execute first thing in the morning, I am looking to sell off some inventory on the long side, looking at stocks whose charts are at risk and with a gap down open on the index will do some damage.  The only question is when the cursory oversold bounce happens will these charts regain support - I don't know of course, but bigger picture I want to get to a more hedged portfolio (we still hold hordes of cash of course).

Will last Fridays headline print and payroll revisions arm twist Ben and his colleagues to re-introduce bond buying this afternoon? As late as last month, the Fed indicated that it was ‘not’ ready to take any action in the ‘near term’ to adjust its open market operations. That being said, policy makers assessment that the ‘economic outlook remains unusually uncertain’, coupled with the recent weak US data in housing and manufacturing, have fueled speculation within Capital Markets that the Fed could take steps as early as today to spur economic growth.

The market is suffering withdrawal symptoms, especially after last Friday’s anemic US employment report. With little data for guidance today, traders will have to go ‘cold turkey’, with no fix, until Bernanke and the boys command center stage tomorrow afternoon. Up until now and rather tentatively, Capital Markets have been pricing in a quantitative easing premium by the Fed. They have managed to conjure up various imaginative plays by the Washington team. This could all come to naught with the possible scenario of a confirmed absence of any Fed purchasing of mortgages or treasuries.

By Marin Katusa, Casey’s Energy Opportunities
Stop the presses. The United States is no longer the world’s biggest consumer of energy.
After topping the energy consumption charts for more than a century, the U.S. has been left behind as China leapfrogged past.