Friday, October 30, 2015
Fed’s US Debt Bomb and Interest Rates / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Zeal_LLC
With the Federal Reserve’s first rate-hike cycle in nearly a decade looming, traders are working overtime trying to divine its timing and impact on the markets. They are closely monitoring the same employment and inflation data the Fed will use to start tightening. But there’s another little-discussed concern for the Fed, the solvency of the US government. The Fed’s zero-interest-rate policy has spawned a grave US debt bomb.
Back in late 2008, the US stock markets suffered their first true stock panic since 1907. This once-in-a-century fear superstorm proved catastrophic. In a single month leading into October 2008, the flagship S&P 500 stock index plummeted 30.0%. Over 6/7ths of these losses happened in 2 weeks, a massive 25.9% cratering! That exceeded the threshold for a stock panic, which is a 20%+ plunge in a couple weeks.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
One of America’s Largest Companies is Stockpiling Food and Gold for the Next Financial Crisis / Stock-Markets / Financial Crisis 2015
By: Casey_Research
By Justin Spittler
One of America’s largest companies is taking a controversial stance on employee benefits.
In a move that is sure to draw criticism from the mainstream press, Jonathan Johnson, chairman of online retail giant Overstock.com (OSTK), publicly stated that the company has stockpiled gold and food in preparation of a U.S. financial crisis.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Stock Market Pivot Day / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The SPX Premarket is up 2 points as I write. It is no surprise to read that bullish fund flows are back. ZeroHedge writes, “The bullish fund flows are back. This is how Bank of America summarizes the latest EPFR capital flow sentiment: "Loving Wall Street: $15bn equity inflows + $5bn HY/IG inflows + 6 straight weeks of commodity inflows = investors are "risk-on."
Bank of America may be “talking” its book.” The information may be correct, but the conclusion may be flawed.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Gold Price Up 3% In October and Enters “Seasonal Sweet Spot” / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: GoldCore
- Gold down 1.3% this week on Fed “noise”
- Gold up 3% in October on robust demand
- Stronger gains in euros, Swiss francs, Japanese yen
- October poor month for gold seasonally
- November, December, January and February the “seasonal sweet spot”
- Confirmation of surging demand for bullion in Germany, India and China in Q3
Friday, October 30, 2015
$DXY - Cash US Dollar Index Chart / Currencies / US Dollar
By: Gary_Savage
This might be interesting. As of early this morning the dollar is forming a failed breakout. The path of the dollar was clearly down until the ECB derailed it with talk of more easing last week. Are the fundamentals starting to pull it back down again?
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Is Britain Preparing a Run for European Union Exit? / Stock-Markets / UK EU Referendum
By: Investment_U
Anthony Summers writes: To remain or not to remain? That is the question British voters have to answer.
A referendum was promised as part of the Conservative Party’s victory earlier this year. And the vote will decide whether England leaves the European Union (EU).
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Silver Prices and Economic Data Releases / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
Hey guys, stay right there. I am really excited once again to be here. We are live and also we get to continue our discussion that started about a month and half ago about the reality of Silver prices right now. We're doing a deep dive. Last week we spent time discussing “standard of care” from a fiduciary standpoint. We discussed technical analysis in the previous week and then we started off the deep dive sections with high frequency trading and algorithm trading. Today's topic is data releases and price action.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Europe in Deflation: Got (cheap) Milk? / Economics / Deflation
By: EWI
Why falling food prices are not a boon for Europe's economy
In the early 1990s, two simple words from a genius ad campaign radically transformed the way the U.S. consumer saw it: "Got Milk?"
Suddenly, the narrative changed from an obligatory drink you had to finish as a kid, along with eating your vegetables -- into a sexy, funny, and above all desirable treat for all ages.
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Friday, October 30, 2015
BEA Reports 3rd Quarter 2015 U.S. GDP Growing at Just 1.49% / Economics / US Economy
By: CMI
In their first estimate of the US GDP for the third quarter of 2015, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the economy was growing at a +1.49% annualized rate, down -2.43% from the second quarter.
This report included significant changes in the details as well as the headline. By far the greatest quarter-over-quarter change was in inventories, which subtracted -1.44% from the headline after being essentially neutral during the prior quarter. As we have mentioned before, the BEA's treatment of inventories can introduce noise and seriously distort the headline number over short terms -- which the BEA admits by also publishing a secondary headline that excludes the impact of inventories. This BEA "bottom line" (their "Real Final Sales of Domestic Product") reported a much more respectable +2.93% growth rate for the third quarter.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Apple Clever Business Strategy—But Is It Clever Enough? / Companies / Apple
By: John_Mauldin
Back when I was in business school, the PC manufacturers were go-go football stocks. Bull market, dude.
There was Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Gateway, which used to sell its computers in a Holstein cow-pattern box. Apple was making Macs but had a much smaller market share than it does today.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Constitution’s Big Lie / Politics / US Politics
By: Antonius_Aquinas
One of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon Americans at the time of its telling and which is still trumpeted to this very day is the notion that the U.S. Constitution contains within its framework mechanisms which limit its power. The “separation of powers,” where power is distributed among the three branches – legislative, executive, judicial – is supposedly the primary check on the federal government’s aggrandizement.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Financial Markets are a Game / Stock-Markets / Market Manipulation
By: EconMatters
Forget about Market Multiples: Totally Meaningless Sell-Side Crap
Thursday, October 29, 2015
ONS UK Population Immigration Panic, Forecast 10 Million Increase / Politics / Immigration
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The ONS is belatedly waking up to Britain's population explosion by forecasting a 15% rise in the UK population from 64.6 million (mid 2014) to 74.3 million by 2039 (25 years time), approx 70% of which will be due to continuing out of control immigration from predominantly eastern europe as 7 million more economic migrants will seek to jump on board Britain's benefits gravy train (in work and out of work benefits) that typically can amount to more than X5 those receivable in eastern europe.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Fed Just Whacked Corporate Earnings / Companies / Corporate Earnings
By: John_Rubino
The markets seemed to like what the Fed had to say yesterday, including the part about definitely, for sure, no kidding around this time raising interest rates in December. Especially elated were currency traders, who bid the US dollar up on the news.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
FOMC Word Play Kicks Off a Correction That Was Coming Anyway in Gold, May Soon Come in Stocks / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2015
By: Gary_Tanashian
What They Said
Read full article... Read full article...“In determining whether it will be appropriate to raise the target range at its next meeting, the Committee will assess progress–both realized and expected–toward its objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation. This assessment will take into account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international developments.”
Thursday, October 29, 2015
US Regulators Mandate Next Stage Of Textbook Financial Repression / Stock-Markets / Government Intervention
By: Dan_Amerman
With comparatively little fanfare, Fidelity Investments has announced that 100% of their $115 billion Cash Reserves fund, the world's largest money fund, will be invested in US government debt by December 1st of 2015. It is expected that many other money fund companies will also change their policies and invest only in US government and agency securities, because of a change in regulations that will occur in 2016.
Since 2010 the US government has been implementing a textbook example of Financial Repression, when it comes to using private savings to control and even effectively pay down the size of the national debt. Far from slowing down or ending this process, these new policies will expand by many millions the number of people who will effectively be forced to fund the purchase of government debt at artificially low interest rates.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
London Property Bubble Set To Burst – UBS and Deutsche Warn / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: GoldCore
The London property market is being increasingly recognised as a bubble and now even leading international banks are warning that the bubble may be set to burst.
Today, UBS has warned that London’s property market is “frothing” and last week Deutsche Bank were the property party pooper “calling time” on the London property “party.”
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
Gold Analogue: Then and Now / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
By: DeviantInvestor
1970s: Gold rallied from about $35 in 1970 to nearly $200 in December 1974, and then fell to about $100 in August 1976.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Financialization of the Economy / Economics / Economic Theory
By: John_Mauldin
Roger Bootle once wrote:
The whole of economic life is a mixture of creative and distributive activities. Some of what we ‘‘earn’’ derives from what is created out of nothing and adds to the total available for all to enjoy. But some of it merely takes what would otherwise be available to others and therefore comes at their expense.
Successful societies maximise the creative and minimise the distributive. Societies where everyone can achieve gains only at the expense of others are by definition impoverished. They are also usually intensely violent….
Much of what goes on in financial markets belongs at the distributive end. The gains to one party reflect the losses to another, and the fees and charges racked up are paid by Joe Public, since even if he is not directly involved in the deals, he is indirectly through costs and charges for goods and services.
The genius of the great speculative investors is to see what others do not, or to see it earlier. This is a skill. But so is the ability to stand on tip toe, balancing on one leg, while holding a pot of tea above your head, without spillage. But I am not convinced of the social worth of such a skill.
This distinction between creative and distributive goes some way to explain why the financial sector has become so big in relation to gross domestic product – and why those working in it get paid so much.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
The Chartology of The Currency Wars …What If ! / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Rambus_Chartology
It finally looks like a major inflection point is getting very close to resolving itself in many different areas of the markets. The US dollar is the key driver of this inflection point which is starting to breakout from a nearly eight month bullish falling wedge consolidation pattern. This afternoon the US dollar began a strong rally that is somewhat unusual during the afternoon hours unless it is Fed Day where anything goes . The daily chart below now shows today’s bar clearly above the top rail of the bullish falling wedge. It’s still possible that we could see a backtest to the top rail at 97.12 before the next impulse move up begins in earnest.