Tuesday, December 22, 2015

UK Mortgage Interest Rates Recap of 2015 / Housing-Market / Mortgages

By: MoneyFacts

The year of 2015 will been seen by many as the year of the mortgage: competition increased until it reached boiling point, with all sectors of the market becoming embroiled in a fight for borrowers. As a result, rates plummeted until they eventually reached new all-time lows.

Indeed, calculations from Moneyfacts.co.uk based on the average two-year fixed rate mortgage show that a new borrower would now be £805.44* a year better off than they were a year ago.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

UK Savers - Make Sure Your Bank Deposits Are Protected / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts

By: MoneyFacts

Most banks looking for deposits from UK consumers have a UK banking licence and deposits with them are covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for up to £85,000 per person (reducing to £75,000 per person from 1 January 2016).

However, European banks are also allowed to operate in the UK under their home country’s regulations. This is called passporting.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Jesus is the Only Way to Salvation / Politics / Religion

By: BATR

The meaning of the true Christmas has been obliterated in the secular society that has turned away from religion and scripture. Churches are as much to blame as the popular culture. No sane person can be confident in the future. The country is in decay and disintegrating. Morals, values and ethical mores have been abandoned or been reduced to relativism that personal responsibility is practiced by only a small segment of the population. Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the birthday of the baby Jesus. Mournfully, you would need to take a pilgrim's journey to find any evidence that this lesson of purpose exists.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Stock Market 1993 Or Bust..... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Jack_Steiman

We can spend forever talking about what the market will do. Will it break down or will it break out. What will be the catalyst, or will it not, and so on. Here is the bottom line folks. Until the bears can take away 1993 on the closing basis with a bit of force, the trend remains basically trend less, with a bullish bias, meaning just meandering. But the bears are unable to take control. Control is different than meandering. Since we're still in a bull market, to me, meandering within it is not bearish. It's only bearish when a critical level of support is removed in a fashion that suggests much lower prices. We have yet to see that on any level. We get that if we can push some volume in to a break down below 1993. To be completely blunt, losing 1993 on light volume would likely lead to a head fake down. When a market breaks one way or the other away from a trend that was in place prior, big money usually lets you know it's occurring.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Four Mining Stocks that Can Survive Gold $1,050 and Silver $15 / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2015

By: The_Gold_Report

The price of gold has see-sawed since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Dec. 16, and market experts debate if the action is good or bad for gold. Rob Chang of Cantor Fitzgerald Canada believes that after the small rate hike doomsayers are overstating their case and that gold should sell in 2016 for about $100/oz more than today. In this interview with The Gold Report, he argues that in today's climate cash costs of $1,000/oz are the bare minimum necessary for survival. Happily, Chang highlights three gold producers and one silver producer that have what it takes.

The Gold Report: Some say the price of gold has for some time been suppressed by fear of a Federal Reserve rate hike. What do you think?

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Stock Market Headed Higher because more Americans drink Coffee than own Stocks / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Sol_Palha

More Americans drink coffee than invest in the markets and yet many of these individuals are stunned that the market is going higher when good jobs are not as easy to find, rents and cost of everyday necessities keep rising.  61% of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis compared to the only 48% that invest in the markets. These stunning facts were published in a  recent article; the article states that if the $1200 that the average American spends on coffee were invested in the market in 2009, it would have grown to $3600.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Silver: May the 100 Year Force Be With You / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: DeviantInvestor

What force?  Some of the “forces” in our world that are supportive of higher silver prices are:

• Debt Increases: Global debt exceeds $200 Trillion and rising rapidly.

• Warfare: Syria, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, South China Sea, Chicago and others.  It is a long list.

• Welfare: Bank bailouts, military contractors, Medicaid, food stamps, dozens of “programs” and so much more.

• Central bank “money printing:” Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and others are doing what they do best – devaluing their currencies.  The bubbles created in the bond, stock, and currency markets must be fed and supported.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Gold Price Double Bottom and Bitcoin - Video / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Mario_Innecco

Transcript excerpt:
December 21st 2015 I'll be talking today about a prop probable or possible double
bottom in the price of gold and also about Bitcoin which is doing it been
doing quite well recently where trading around 4:40 right now we are down twenty
one dollars from from the highs 468 earlier you know earlier in the day
gold is trading at 1068 we we did get up to a thousand 74 earlier in London it's
right now almost 1 p.m. London time almost 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time New
York so the possible double bottom in gold is between it looks like reform
that you know I double bottom 2047 which was the law on the 3rd of December and
roughly the same low on the 17th of December with that in mind I've looked
at the high on the 4th of December which is a thousand and 89 and that will be

Monday, December 21, 2015

When Gold Comes Back Into Favor? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Submissions

Sasafuturestrading writes: Stocks usually change direction before commodities.

There is one market that really shines when stocks and the dollar are in bear markets together, and that market is gold.

In other words, a climate of falling stock prices, a falling U.S. dollar, and historically low interest rates don’t leave investors with a lot of investment alternatives. This is the exact type of intermarket climate that drives money to gold.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Beware of Central Bank Success / Interest-Rates / Central Banks

By: Michael_Pento

The most important question investors will soon have to face is: "what's going to happen once central banks finally meet their inflation targets?"

For example, let's assume after years of monetizing government debt, bidding up equity prices, and forcing debt on the public by keeping borrowing costs at or below zero; that the ECB is finally able to achieve its inflation target rate of 2%. This would only occur once money supply growth becomes both robust and sustainable. It is silly to believe ECB President Mario Draghi can bring inflation to just 2% and nail it at that level. Inflation will continue to rise past 2% until the ECB raises interest rates by reducing its pace of bond buying. So, we will have the environment where inflation is rising north of 2% and the central bank will be forced to start cutting back its purchases of debt and preparing the market for eventual outright sales.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Stock Market Positive Expectations Following Last Week's Sell-off, But Will It Last? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Paul_Rejczak

Briefly: In our opinion, no speculative positions are justified.

Our intraday outlook is now neutral, and our short-term outlook is neutral:

Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): neutral
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): neutral
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): bearish
Long-term outlook (next year): bullish

Monday, December 21, 2015

UK Savings Interst Rates Recap of 2015 / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts

By: MoneyFacts

This year we have seen new brands enter the savings market and Government proposals to encourage people to save, either towards their first home, or to secure a higher return of interest during retirement.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Yellen has Lift Off, But Rates Won’t Go To The Moon / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates

By: Sam_Kirtley

At the FOMC meeting last week the Fed raised interest rates for the first time since 2006. This was a historic moment marks the first rate hike after the Fed engaged in massive quantitative easing programs to combat the Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession. However, we are not economists or economic historians. We run a trading service and are therefore concerned with where the markets will go next. This means that our key point of analysis is around where rates will go next, rather than what they did last week.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Ron Paul - Do We Need the Fed? / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: Dr_Ron_Paul

Stocks rose Wednesday following the Federal Reserve's announcement of the first interest rate increase since 2006. However, stocks fell just two days later. One reason the positive reaction to the Fed's announcement did not last long is that the Fed seems to lack confidence in the economy and is unsure what policies it should adopt in the future.

Monday, December 21, 2015

U.S. Silver Production Plunges by 20% / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Jason_Hamlin

To view The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released their September silver production numbers this week and the results were incredible. Only 82.6 metric tons (mt) of silver were produced domestically in September versus 103 tons during September of last year. This represents a massive decline of 20% and is part of a greater trend of declining silver supply.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Euro Rally Likely to Reverse / Currencies / Euro

By: Richard_Cox

As we move into the end of this year, we have seen some surprising moves in the currency markets that have likely taken many traders by surprise.  Perhaps the best example here is the shorter-term rally in the EUR/USD, which has quickly risen to near important psychological levels at 1.10.  This commonly traded pair has spent most of its recent activity roughly 5 big-figures below this area, so the it is difficult to argue against the fact that these moves have been substantial. 

Monday, December 21, 2015

Stock Market's Wild Swings May Continue into the New Year / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Brad_Gudgeon

I just need to start off saying that due to the Holidays, this update will not include charts. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Two weeks ago, I had been expecting a stock market low around the New Moon at the Sagittarius/Capricorn cusp due December 14th when the Sun squares Jupiter near the Bradley turn of December 11. I also was expecting a rally into mid week and then possible further weakness into week's end, which we got. We are now falling into the moon at the Aries/Taurus cusp, which often times is a market low when the stock market falls through the moon at the Sagittarius- Capricorn cusp. We are also at a Bradley turn when Mercury squares Uranus (which turns stationary direct Christmas Day on the full moon).

Monday, December 21, 2015

Silver Price Stuck in a Grim Downtrend / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Clive_Maund

Silver has been somewhat weaker than gold in the recent past and dropped to clear new lows last Monday, as we can see on its 6-month chart below, but this should not come as a surprise as its recent COT structure has been nowhere near as positive as gold's, and at the end of a bearmarket or beginning of a bullmarket, gold outperforms silver.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Gold Price Suspected Bullish Falling Wedge Pattern / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Clive_Maund

Gold's technical picture is actually little changed from the last update posted on the 6th, apart from its having made marginal new lows late last week. What has changed is that we have since seen the Fed raise interest rates for the first time in many years, and the Junk Bond market has started to seriously fall apart.

With respect to the rise in interest rates there are two points to be made. The first is that, contrary to the general belief that gold is less attractive in an environment of rising rates because it doesn't pay interest, it actually does well, because some of the money that floods out of the stockmarket flows into gold. Second, the Fed's diminutive rate rise was a hollow face-saving measure, intended to salvage some credibility after it had been "crying wolf" for so long. It is too little and far too late.

Monday, December 21, 2015

The Recession And Bear Market Of 2016, In Two Charts / Economics / Recession 2016

By: John_Rubino

Good friend Michael Pollaro just sent a couple of charts that show the US economy heading for a brick wall. The first illustrates what happens when business sales (the green line) turn negative. In the previous two boom/bust cycles, when sales started falling the economy either tipped into recession shortly thereafter or (it was discovered in retrospect) was already well into a contraction.