Tuesday, January 16, 2018

The Swamp Lives On - Crooked Banks and Captured Regulators / Politics / Market Regulation

By: MoneyMetals

If officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are bothered by allegations of incompetence and capture by Wall Street’s bankers, it is hard to tell. The Commission recently hired Brett Redfearn to serve as Director of the Division of Trading and Markets. Redfearn left a 13-year stint at JP Morgan to assume a key role in regulating banks, investors and traders.

The SEC, and other regulators such as the CFTC and the Federal Reserve, aren’t worried about appearances. Redfearn looks like yet another fox being sent to guard the henhouse. His appointment undermines confidence even if he intends to serve with integrity.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Crude Oil is Starting 2018 Strong but there's Undeniable Risk to the Downside / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: Boris_Dzhingarov

Crude oil is starting out strong in 2018 as both the international Brent benchmark and the West Texas Intermediate continue to book price gains. The gains in crude oil prices this year is riding the waves of the uptrend in oil prices that began in 2017. Now, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate is trading up around $63.57 per barrel and the Brent crude is trading up around $69.20 per barrel. 

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

SPX, NDX, INDU and RUT Stock Indices all at Resistance Levels / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

Good Morning!

SPX futures challenged the 2800.00 round number resistance, rising to 2803.50 over the extended weekend.

ZeroHedge comments, “When markets open for trading today, the S&P will rise above 2,800 and the Dow Jones will not only make a new record high (those have become a bit of a boring daily occurrence lately) it will do so in historic fashion with just 12 days needed to move from 25,000 to 26,000, the fastest 1,000 point move in history, nearly twice as fast as the previous record when it took just 23 days for the DJIA to move from 24,000 to 25,000. And yes, get ready for the imminent (self-)congratulatory tweet from Donald Trump...”

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Silver Prices To Surge – JP Morgan Has Acquired A “Massive Quantity of Physical Silver” / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018

By: GoldCore

– JP Morgan continues to accumulate the biggest stockpile of physical silver in history
– “JPM now holds more than 133m oz -more than was held by the Hunt Bros” – Butler
– Silver hoard owned by JPM has increased from Zero ozs in 2011 to 120m ozs today
– Money managers showing more optimism towards silver through record buying
– “Near impossible to rule out an upside price surprise at any moment”

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

The Worst Year on Record for Cash ISA Returns / Personal_Finance / ISA's

By: MoneyFacts

Cash ISAs have been a popular go-to for consumers looking to take advantage of their tax-free allowance, but over the years these deals have dwindled in both number and the returns offered.

The average return on cash ISAs over the past year was just 0.93%, the lowest seen on moneyfacts.co.uk records. In contrast, the average stocks and shares ISA returned growth of 11.75%*. In January 2017, the average cash ISA rate fell to its lowest level at 0.82%, but after several months of consistent rate rises, it has today hit 1.09%. This is, however, still much lower than what could be achieved just two years ago. In April, the anticipated ISA season gave very little, as the average easy access ISA rate and average notice ISA rate both fell to their lowest level.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Carillion Bankruptcy and the PFI Sector Spiraling Costs Crisis, Amey, G4S, Balfour Beatty, Serco.... / Companies / Corporate News

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Carillion has gone bust after Theresa May's Government decided not to bailout this particular private sector PFI contractor with tax payers money. Which the government deemed to be too small to bail, unlike the £4 trillion of banking sector liability bailouts of 2008 that the people of Britain are still paying the price for some 9 years on in terms of loss of purchasing power of real terms earnings as a consequence of inflating the money supply of asset prices through quantitative easing of over £500 billion and through a myriad of additional asset price boosting schemes such as "Funding for Lending".

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Artificial Intelligence - Extermination of Humanity / Politics / AI

By: BATR

The confusion about AI stems from the different perceptions of exactly what it means. A widely accepted definition indicates that Artificial Intelligence is the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior. The far more exoteric interpretations of its meaning can be speculated ad infinitum. Despite this lack of consensus the implications from the effect of AI upon humanity is incontestable. Everyone is familiar with the understanding of components that make up the human species, but who among us can guarantee that the consistent nature of man will continue into the future?  

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

One Big, Potential Catalyst for Gold in 2018 / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

The rebound in the precious metals sector continues. Friday, Gold pushed to another new high, near $1340/oz. Gold stocks led by the HUI Gold Bugs Index and GDX also made a new high with juniors and Silver right behind. The greatest traders say the move comes first and then the reason later. When it comes to Gold we are always analyzing the reason behind the moves so we can distinguish between reactions and reflex moves and those moves that are part of a real bull market. The market may be starting to sniff out a potential big catalyst for Gold that could drive its breakout in 2018.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Carillion Goes Bust, as Government Refuses to Bailout PFI Contractors Debt and Pensions Liabilities / Companies / Corporate News

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Carillion goes bust after Government decides not to bailout the private sector PFI contractor with tax payers money, unlike the £4 trillion banking sector liability bailout that the people of Britain continue to suffer the consequences of in terms of loss of purchasing power of real terms earnings as a consequence of inflation of the money supply and asset prices through quantitative easing of over £500 billion and through a myriad of other banking sector asset price boosting measures such as the "Funding for Lending" scheme amongst a dozen others.

Monday, January 15, 2018

What Really Happens in Iran?  / Politics / Iran

By: Dan_Steinbock

US New Sanctions amid Iran's Transition and Pivot to the East                          

Iran’s recent volatility reflects US effort to undermine the nuclear accord as Iran is amid economic transition and increasingly looking toward the East.

At the end of December, a series of protests against economic policies erupted in Iran. As they spread, their scope expanded to include political opposition against the government. As President Trump tweeted his support for the protesters and criticism of the government, pro-government marchers filled the streets.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Stock Market Near an Intermediate Top? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Andre_Gratian

Current Position of the Market

SPX: Long-term trend – The bull market is continuing with a top expected in the low 3000s.
 
 Intermediate trend – A short-intermediate term top is re-forming at a higher level!.

Analysis of the short-term trend is done on a daily basis with the help of hourly charts.  It is an important adjunct to the analysis of daily and weekly charts which discusses the course of longer market trends. 

Monday, January 15, 2018

The Key Economic Indicator You Should Watch in 2018 / Economics / US Economy

By: John_Mauldin

BY PATRICK WATSON : I think this year’s top risk is a miscalculation by the Federal Reserve—specifically, that it will tighten monetary policy too much.

The Fed is hiking interest rates because its experts believe the economy is close to “full employment.” And the Phillips Curve says wages should start rising any minute now.

Monday, January 15, 2018

London Property Market Crash Looms As Prices Drop To 2 1/2 Year Low / Housing-Market / UK Housing

By: GoldCore

– London homeowners cut property prices by another 1.4% in January
– Average price for a London house dropped by £22,000 to £600,926 in 2017
– Takes 78 days to sell a home on average, the highest level since 2012
– London’s downtrend continues after 2017 performance as worst UK housing market
– UK regional house prices begin to falter as house prices climb slows down
– Gold bullion remains a great hedge for property investors

Monday, January 15, 2018

As Savers Demand Grows, Interest Rates Fall on Short-term Bonds / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts

By: MoneyFacts

Moneyfacts UK Savings Trends Treasury Report data (not yet published) shows that the average one-year fixed rate has fallen for the first time since January 2017.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Will USD Fall to New Lows in 2018? / Currencies / US Dollar

By: Submissions

Markets are starting to return to full strength again, now that the holiday period has officially come to a close.  The next moves in the US Dollar Index (DXY) could be significant in terms of their possibility to define the broader market trends seen for the remainder of this year.  As we will see here, this did happen in 2017 and this does match the historical averages that develop in the USD when its value is compared to a basket of heavily traded currency counterparts.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Some Fascinating Stock Market Fibonacci Relationships... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

You may recall that I had mentioned in December that I was looking to see whether the INDU would make 27521.00 by year end. Since it took to January 12 to make that target may be telling us that Social Mood may be making a reversal. We may pin the reversal on an event, but the fact is, the fruit doesn’t fall from the tree until it is ripe. What I mean to say is that the conditions for a fall must be there. Hopefully I will be able to guide you through the process until the fruit actually falls. We know from the indicators on the SPX that the fruit is ripe. Here are some of the reasons why.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

How to Know If This Stock Market Rally Will Continue for Two More Months? / Stock-Markets / Articles

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Our research has been “spot on” with regards to the markets for the first few weeks of 2018.  We issued our first trade on Jan 2nd, plus two very detailed research reports near the end of 2017 and early 2018.  We urge you to review these research posts as they tell you exactly what to expect for the first Quarter in 2018.

Continuing this research, we have focused our current effort on the Transportation Index, the US Majors, and the Metals Markets.  The Transportation Index has seen an extensive rally (+19.85%) originating near November 2017.  This incredible upside move correlates with renewed US Tax policies and Economic increases that are sure to drive the US Equity market higher throughout 2018.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Did China Just Burst the Everything Bubble? / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Graham_Summers

The biggest news today comes from China, which has announced it will “slow or halt” US Treasury purchases.

This is the so-called NUCLEAR option: the threat by China to stop buying US debt. And it’s an absolute game-changer.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Bubble Watch: Both the Currency Markets and Bonds Markets See Inflation Coming / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Graham_Summers

If you want to make money investing, you first need to understand the structure of the asset classes in our current financial system,

Everyone likes to go bonkers over stocks, but the reality is that the stock market is in fact one of the smallest and least liquid markets on the planet. All told, US stocks are roughly $26 trillion in market cap.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Oprah for President, Really? / Politics / US Politics

By: Mike_Whitney

Being president isn’t like hosting a talk show or running a media brand. Oprah’s success in her field is no more indicative of her potential to be a good president than Trump’s success in real estate was. You can’t criticize Trump for having no relevant experience or evident understanding of public policy, then say that the solution for Democrats is just to throw up their hands and find their own celebrity to promote.— Paul Waldman, “Get a Grip, People. Oprah should not run for President”, Washington Post