Thursday, February 09, 2017
According to “Unmassaged Data” the US Economy is Rolling Over / Economics / Recession 2017
By: Graham_Summers
Yet another “unmassaged” data point has shown that the US economy is rolling over.
If you’ve been reading me for a while you know that one of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that headline US economic data (GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, etc.) is massaged to the point of being fiction.
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Germany Blasts Israel’s Illegal Land Grab / Politics / Israel
By: Stephen_Lendman
A previous article discussed Israel’s Resolution Law, retroactively approving around 4,000 illegally built settler outpost homes on privately owned Palestinian land - confiscating it for exclusive Jewish occupation and use, legislation its attorney general opposed and won’t defend.
Anything about Israel is sensitive in Germany, given its Nazi era mass extermination of Jews.
Last December, its Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed great concern about the pending legislation, saying it “violates international law,” along with “undermin(ing)” any chance for a two-state solution.
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Trump Plays Cat and Mouse with Iran / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
Why is the Trump administration threatening Iran?
On February 1, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn announced that the administration was “putting Iran on notice” after it tested a ballistic missile which the US sees as a violation of Iran’s treaty obligations. Flynn’s frigid tone made it clear that the administration is considering the use of military force. But why?
Under current UN resolutions (Resolution 2231), Iran is forbidden “to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.” Read that over again. Iran is not forbidden from testing ‘all ballistic missiles’ just missiles that are ‘capable of delivering nuclear weapons.’ The resolution could not be clearer. There’s no gray area here, none at all. Flynn is just fudging the resolution’s meaning, so he can rattle a saber. But, why? And why are other members of the administration, including the president himself, making equally belligerent remarks? In a tweet last week, Trump said, “I won’t be as ‘kind’ to Iran as Obama” which was followed by a speech by US Defense Secretary James Mattis who called Iran “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Stock Market Solid Session with Mixed Technicals / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Harry_Boxer
The stock market indices had a good session, although they started the day out with a drop to the downside, held support, came on strong in the morning, consolidated midsession, and ran back up in the afternoon, only to pull back n the last ten minutes to pare back the gains and put the Dow back in the negative column.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 35.95 at 20,054.34. The S&P 500 was up 1.59 at 2294.67, a point off the high. The Nasdaq 100 was up 10.70 at 5196.58, 5 points off the high.
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Morrisons Own Brand Cheap Batteries that Leak! / ConsumerWatch / Shopping
By: HGR
Are you tempted to buy cheap store brand batteries such as those sold by the likes of Morrisons, Tesco and others, rather than pay more for brands such as Duracell? We'll there is more to consider than just whether they are likely to have a lot less charge than the branded batteries as this video illustrates that there is also a higher risk of leakage, even after just a months use.
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Thursday, February 09, 2017
Sheffield Housing Crisis, First New Council Houses Built for Rent in 30 Years! / Housing-Market / Sheffield
By: N_Walayat
Britain continues to experience a worsening housing crisis as annual demand for 400,000 new builds far out strips supply of barely 140,000, which keeps ratcheting up the crisis each year. Sheffield as is the case for most UK cities has seen its safety net of council properties for rent evaporate from a housing stock of over 80,000 30 years ago, most of which have been sold off at deep discounts under the right to buy scheme to now stand at under 40,000 council properties for rent.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
USD Rolling Over, SPX Weakening / Currencies / US Dollar
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
Good Morning!
USD futures are fading this morning as a smaller overnight retracement failed to exceed yesterday’s high at 100.69.
ZeroHedge reports, “We're going to need another Fed speaker...
Harker comments overnight on March being live spiked the Dollar...
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Wednesday, February 08, 2017
What an America First Trade Policy Could Mean for the US Dollar / Currencies / US Dollar
By: John_Mauldin
John Grandits : A key pillar of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and now policy formation, is an “America First” approach. So far, this has entailed much discussion around negotiating more favorable trade deals, withdrawing from possible participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, citing potential currency manipulators, and construction of a wall along the Mexican border, to name a few.
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Wednesday, February 08, 2017
U.S. Dollar Exorbitant Privilege At Risk?! / Currencies / US Dollar
By: Axel_Merk
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, American's exorbitant privilege might be at risk with broad implications for the U.S. dollar and investors' portfolios. Let me explain.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Trumpin' and Thumpin' Back to the 1930s / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
With the Trump White House, America and a global economy will enter a highly divisive period – as evidenced by the debate about his economic, trade and infrastructure plans.
As long as Republicans sustain some unity in and between the White House, the Senate and the House of the Representatives, Trump will benefit from an unprecedented execution power.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Stock Market Positive Session with Poor Technicals / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Harry_Boxer
The stock market indices were up marginally today, but the technicals were not good. The day started out with a gap up, bounced around early morning, stair-stepped its way down, rallied back up, pulled back, retested, an moved sideways the rest of the day to close in the positive column.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 37.87 at 20,090.29. The S&P 500 was up .52 at 2293.08. The Nasdaq 100 was up 17.91 at 5178.85, but reaching a new high at 5196.27.
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Wednesday, February 08, 2017
US Dollar Breaks below USD100 with Rising Yields, is Wholesale US Treasury Dump Coming? / Currencies / US Dollar
By: John_Lee
The US Dollar Index has fallen below the psychological 100 level, while 2-year and 10-year US Treasury yields remain above multi-year support levels. This is despite the Federal Open Market Committee keeping the Federal Funds rate steady at 0.75% on Feb 1, 2017.
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Bad News For Stock Bulls.. the US is Sliding Into Recession / Economics / Recession 2017
By: Graham_Summers
While the financial media was applauding last week’s jobs number, those of us who actually look into the details can tell you that the report was complete fiction.
The headline number of 227,000 was largely crafted through seasonal adjustments, NOT actual job creation. At a minimum 170,000 of those jobs were created in an excel spreadsheet by bean counters, NOT by businesses hiring.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
SPX is Stretched, But Hanging On / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
It appears that the alternate view of the SPX may not apply even though the NDX and DJIA both made higher highs. Both needed fifth Wave completion, while it appears that SPX is already complete as an Ending diagonal.
There appears to be no sell signal yet. We’ll know it when the market breaks.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Gold and Crude Oil Link – What Does It Say? / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Nadia_Simmons
Trading position (short-term; our opinion): Short positions (with a stop-loss order at $56.45 and an initial downside target at $45.81) are justified from the risk/reward perspective.
On Monday, crude oil lost 1.52% after oil investors reacted to Friday’s Baker Hughes’ report, which showed that U.S. drillers added 17 rigs, which was the 13th increase in the past 14 weeks. Thanks to this news light crude reversed and declined to the previously-broken short-term support/resistance line. Will it manage to stop oil bears in the coming days? Is it possible that the relationship between gold and crude oil give us more clues about oil’s future moves?
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
America’s Aging Demographics / Politics / Demographics
By: Rodney_Johnson
It was a long time ago, way back in 1950.The United States was recovering from World War II while facing down a new enemy, China, on the Korean Peninsula. We were an exporting powerhouse that fortunately escaped the war with all of our production capacity intact. And, our population was experiencing a baby boom.
We were growing our wealth, expanding our military capabilities, and increasing our population. Even after the ravages of war, we had a tremendous group of workers 20 to 49 years old, and an explosion of babies on the way.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
We’re Seeing More of Trump Reaction than Action / Politics / Immigration
By: Harry_Dent
Look. Economy & Markets isn’t a political newsletter, and I typically stay away from talking about it – people are touchy on the subject, and it’s the quickest way to make enemies.Yet I find myself writing about Trump again! It’s like I just can’t escape the man.
Of course, I can choose not to write about him, and instead write about any number of other important things… but I don’t think that would be valuable to you because everything that The Donald has done so far connects directly back to the research and the heart of our operation: demographics and cycles.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Major Banks Are Now Bullish for the First Time in Close to a Decade / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: The_Gold_Report
Chinese and European economic activities are finally showing signs of strength, and in 2017, any severe corrections should be viewed as opportunities to position more strategically for long-term gains, says Lior Gantz, editor of Wealth Research Group.
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Fake and False and Just Plain Nonsense News / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Two and a half weeks after the inauguration, and yes it’s only been that long, the media still don’t seem to have learned a single thing. They help the Trump campaign on an almost hourly basis by parroting whatever things, invariably judged as crazy, he says. One day it’s that negative polls are all fake news, the next it’s some list of underreported terror events. All of it gets an avalanche of attention provided by the very people who claim to be against Trump, but greatly help his cause by doing so.
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
SPX Rallies. Will Stock Market Make a New High? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
Good Morning!
SPX futures are higher this morning, although they have not broken out above last Friday’s high at 2298.31. It has missed that possibility by only 25 ticks, so there is still a chance that we may see a higher print this morning.
Given the rally after what appears to be an a-b-c decline yesterday, the odds are better than even we may see a new high this morning. The Cycles Model suggests it may happen in the first two hours of the day. I have placed the alternate Wave structure on the chart for our consideration. The target may be the “natural” target I gave last week at 2305.00, or possibly higher, should the rally have any strength.
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