Sunday, January 31, 2016
As Goes January, So Goes the Year... / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2016
And so we say goodby to January 2016.
There is an old saying on Wall Street that as goes January, so goes the year. This is also known in some circles as the 'January barometer.'
If this is the case it is going to be a good year for precious metals and a very wild ride for stocks.
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Sunday, January 31, 2016
Nice week for Gold : It’s All about Sentiment / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
I wanted to take a bit of time in this post to discuss one of the most important things that those wishing to be successful in trading/investing need to learn, namely detecting shifts in sentiment.Those of you who have been reading my work for a while will be familiar with my constant reference to this topic. It is primarily for some of the newer readers that I wanted to write this but also to reinforce the concept in the minds of some of the more seasoned hands.
Sentiment is what moves markets. Never forget this. Bullish sentiment drives prices higher; bearish sentiment drives prices lower. It matters not what we MIGHT THINK the current fundamentals happen to be; that is irrelevant. Price will move in the direction that the majority of market participants happen to think it should move in; not in the direction that one’s own understanding of the fundamentals dictates it should. Understand this and you are well on your way to becoming profitable.
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Sunday, January 31, 2016
Silver Price Breaks Higher on Rising Anxiety / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
Echoing the perilous financial market volatility of late, silver prices have gradually moved to the highest levels since December as growing risk aversion and shifting sentiment see safety bids gain momentum. While not necessarily indicative of a resumption of the trend higher that began in the depths of the last financial crisis, several factors are pointing to increased potential gains in the precious metal as investors are forced to pivot from yield to quality in an effort to hedge against ongoing turmoil. While inflation may remain low, dragging on prices over the medium-term, tightness in the physical supply chain alongside increased interest in hedging against uncertainty of monetary policy and central banking continue to contribute to upside in silver.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, January 31, 2016
USD-JPY Back In Bullish Mode / Currencies / Japanese Yen
Many years from now, the people of Japan will tell their children and grandchildren of a time long since past when interest rates were negative and you actually had to pay the bank to give them money. The kids will go "Wow" in amazement and disbelief.
The Bank of Japan announced this exact thing the past week and this is the present we currently live in and is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future. This should see the USDJPY now trade higher.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Stocks Bear Market Rally Underway / Stock-Markets / Stocks Bear Market
Another volatile week! The week started off at SPX 1907, traded down to 1876 on Monday, then rallied to 1917 on Wednesday before the FOMC statement. After the statement was released the market traded down to SPX 1873, retested that low on Thursday, then rocketed higher on Friday to end the week at SPX 1940. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 2.05%, the NDX/NAZ gained 0.50%, and the DJ World index gained 2.10%. Economic reports for the week were positive. On the uptick: Case-Shiller, the FHFA, consumer confidence, new/pending home sales, the Chicago PMI, plus weekly jobless claims improved. On the downtick: durable goods, Q4 GDP, consumer sentiment and the WLEI. Next week we get reports on the PCE, the ISM’s and monthly Payrolls.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Gold And Silver Current Prices Do Not Matter / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
Truth be known, short of an uprising or revolution by the masses, which is highly unlikely, the elites have won over the masses, hands down, and the end game is in the final and irreversible stages. Time and again, we have reiterated the elites formulaic strategy of Problem, Reaction, Solution. The most current is the outrageous Mid East refugee situation where European countries are being forced to accept hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees from the war-torn Middle East.
It is no secret that the US has been covertly responsible for much of the destruction and strife in that area. Where not covertly involved, the US has provided arms and logistics to Saudi Arabia as the Saudis are destroying helpless Yemenis in the proxy war against Iran.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Small Business Indicators For Microcap Sector Choices / Companies / Investing 2016
Alfidi Capital writes: Microcap stocks are notoriously hard nuts to crack. They are the part of the capitalization-weighted investment universe that is typically less liquid, transparent, and profitable than large-cap choices. Investors do have some indicators they can use to estimate turning points in the microcap sector's aggregate health. A small number of microcap ETFs help diversify away company-specific risk.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Gold Price Potential Upside 2016 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
The most important chart of 2016!
Charts in this essay are courtesy Stockcharts.com unless indicated.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Stock Market Bears Pulverised by BOJ Knock Out Punch, Non Technical Take Video / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
The Stock market ended Friday sharply higher, up 396 points or 2.5% on the day at Dow 16,466, continuing its recovery towards the middle of a 6 month long trading range. Whilst my in-depth analysis and detailed trend forecast for 2016 remains pending, however here is my non technical take of Januarys crazy price action that garnered much bearish doom and gloom commentary for much of the month, with the bears literally on the receiving end of a BOJ knockout punch on the months last trading day -
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Stock Market, BOJ Negative Rates...Poor GDP...Up We Go...... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
Many bear markets in the past have gotten oversold, but one thing did not happen. The daily MACD's didn't cross back up from those oversold conditions. They met and kissed off back down, but today we saw crosses from those deeply compressed levels, which tells you we're likely to stay up for a while, although that level of up and how high is truly unpredictable. Will it only be a test of the 20-day exponential moving average, or will it get through the lost uptrend line, or beyond that, will it get back up to the 50-day exponential moving average? No way to know, but the uptrend line is at 1940. The 50's are all the way up at 1977. With the MACD crosses getting to the 50's is not out of the question.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Lacy Hunt: Inflation and 10-Year US Treasury Yields Headed Lower / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
Dr. Lacy Hunt joins FRA Co-Founder Gordon T. Long in an in-depth discussion on the current debt dilemma and the decisions of the Federal Reserve. Dr. Lacy H. Hunt, an internationally known economist, is Executive Vice President of Hoisington Investment Management Company, a firm that manages over $5 billion for pension funds, endowments, insurance companies and others. He is the author of two books, and numerous articles in leading magazines, periodicals and scholarly journals. Included among the publishers of his articles are. Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the Journal of Finance, the Financial Analysts Journal and the Journal of Portfolio Management.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
The Curious Case of Copper... / Commodities / Copper
I recently watched a movie called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which some of you may have seen. In this film the lead role, played by Brad Pitt, is born as a decrepit old man and gets steadily younger until he eventually died of old age as a baby. To say that it's ridiculous is the understatement of the millennium. Yet many people come away from watching this film thinking "How wonderful, if we all kept getting younger!" As a contrarian I instead found myself wondering about the catastrophic effect on the cosmetics industry, as the market for anti-aging creams would collapse.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
No Change in Outlook for Gold and Silver 2016 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
With each passing rally hope has bloomed that the bear market in precious metals may be over. The long and deep “forever bear” has to end but it hasn’t yet. Under the surface, the bear market is getting weaker and Gold is growing stronger. It’s showing strength against foreign currencies and has broken its downtrend relative to equities. These are very positive developments and a precursor to the birth of a new bull market. However, the weak rebounds in the metals coupled with the potential for a US Dollar breakout advise us to continue to remain patient and cautious.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
Stock Market Volatility Index Funny Business / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
The volatility index, or the VIX, is commonly thought to be an index that gauges index volatility. Actually, the VIX is an index that gauges the expense of put options. Put options of course are designed to gain advantage when the underlying asset declines in price. In this case, the VIX is a measure of the expense of buying put options on the S&P 500 index. Normally, prices are set by buyers and sellers. More buyers than sellers generally leads to higher prices and fewer buyers than sellers generally leads to lower prices. Normally.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
US Mint Gold Bullion Coin Sales / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
Recent years have seen countless claims that gold and silver prices have to head far lower, implying demand is low or supply is high. But the actual data continues to prove this false, showing precious-metals bearishness is rooted in sentiment and not fundamentals. One fascinating microcosm of gold and silver demand comes in the form of the US Mint’s sales of its popular American Eagle bullion coins.
When American investors buy physical gold and silver bullion, it’s often in the form of these American Eagle 1-ounce coins. They have a really interesting history. Back in the early 1980s, foreign national gold coins led by South Africa’s famous Krugerrand were soaring in popularity. The US Congress didn’t want the States to be left out of the prestigious national-gold-coin business, so it finally acted in 1985.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
The Fed’s Normalization and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
The Fed hike is not the end of the world. The U.S. economy experienced many tightening cycles. Actually, many analysts are citing past rate hike environments as a guide to the future. However, three things make this tightening cycle (if there are more hikes at all) unique. First, the U.S. central bank increased interest rates when the economy is actually decelerating and the manufacturing sector is in a recession. This makes new hikes less probable, while increasing the odds for the U.S. recession in the new year. Both effects are fundamentally positive for the gold market.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
Be Prepared for Stock Market Insanity / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
SPX overshot its mid-cycle resistance, which is not unusual. The retracement lasted exactly 51.6 hours (12 X 4.3), which was longer than I had expected. The retracement amount was 116.43 points, which amounted to a 43.2% bounce from the low.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
Sugar Commodity Trading Sweet Tooth Pay Day! / Commodities / Agricultural Commodities
On Wednesday Jan 27th I wrote an article that gave you a picture perfect trade setup. The trade is on sugar or the SGG sugar ETF. As of this writing sugar is now over 10% in our favor from the original entry and trading at short term support.
This is a critical level to lock in partial profits and move your stop in the money for the balance of the trade to be safe. I just want to keep following up with this trade as many followers are in this trade with me.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
BEA Estimates U.S. Economy 4th Quarter 2015 GDP Growth at 0.69% / Economics / US Economy
In their first "Preliminary" estimate of the US GDP for the fourth quarter of 2015, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the economy was growing at a +0.69% annualized rate, down -1.30% from the third quarter.
All of the key line items in this report showed meaningful deterioration relative to the third quarter. The reported growth in consumer spending was less than half of that recorded during the prior quarter. The growth in fixed investments nearly disappeared, as did growth in governmental spending. Exports continued to crater, showing outright contraction.
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Friday, January 29, 2016
GBP-USD Stuck Between Bulls And Bears / Currencies / British Pound
Correction completed or no? That's the question I am wondering while looking at GBPUSD. Firstly I assumed that we will see higher corrective for blue wave 4-cricled, because of the degree that I am tracking on a daily chart. I thought we may even see 1.4560 level, but todays decline put some doubt in that view. That said, I prepared two wave counts now, and will be ready to go with the bearish one if we get a daily close beneath 1.4172. Then I would look for a retest of 1.4080 early in February. But until then wave four can still reach higher levels with sub-wave C) if consider possible flat now in wave B). This is now time for patience, as battle between bulls and bears appears undecided.
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