Sunday, August 02, 2015

It's a Wonderful Life Without the Federal Reserve Bank / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank

By: ...

MoneyMorning.com Shah Gilani writes: I have a dream. Well, I had a dream, but maybe it's never coming true, so I'll revel in my real dream.

And what a dream it was…

America had changed overnight. I didn't know what had happened, but everything was different the morning I woke up (while I was, unfortunately, still in my dream).

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Power and Compassion / Politics / Social Issues

By: Raul_I_Meijer

Time to tackle a topic that’s very hard to get right, and that will get me quite a few pairs of rolling eyes. I want to argue that societies need a social fabric, a social contract, and that without those they must and will fail, descend into chaos. Five months ago, I wrote the following about Europe:

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Preparing for The Stock Market Crash - Inverse ETFs and Puts Timing... / Stock-Markets / Financial Crash

By: Clive_Maund

In this update on the broad market S&P500 index we are going to look at no less than 5 charts for it, covering different time frames, the reason for this is that there are different points to make on each of these charts.

Before looking at the charts for the S&P500 index we are going to review first a range of charts, including the latest charts for Margin Debt and NYSE available cash. These charts provide the direst warning imaginable of impending trouble.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Commodity Prices Slump Signals Slow Economic Growth Outlook / Commodities / Commodities Trading

By: Dan_Norcini

In my opinion, the surest method for ascertaining what the sentiment is towards overall global economic growth prospects is the commodity sector performance.

When sentiment is upbeat towards global growth, commodities tend to be in a strong uptrend on the charts. The reverse is true when prospects turn sour; commodities have a general tendency to sell off.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

BSE Sensex Stocks Bear Market Underway / Stock-Markets / India

By: Austin_Galt

The Indian stock exchange, the BSE Sensex, looks to be tracing out its first steps in a new bear market so let's review the action using the monthly and weekly charts.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Stock Market Some Day..... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015

By: Jack_Steiman

We are all trying to wrap our heads around this base. Arguments can be made on both sides. The bulls will tell us that sentiment is unwinding nicely as we hold the range, while the bears will say the longer this goes on without breaking out tells us the bulls have run out of steam. Actually, both are right to some degree but the truth is that we really don't understand fully why the market won't make a definitive move one way or the other. S&P 500 2134 and 2040 are rock solid in terms of resistance and support. There are other factors. Ms. Yellen is clearly dovish and wants this market higher. She's playing up how rates won't be aggressively raised, if at all this year. When she spoke Wednesday at their last meeting she said they are still data dependent, and they made no firm statement about raising rates in September, which is when everyone believes she will do the dirty deed. She seemed to almost go out of her way to let us all know that she may not raise it at that time.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

What Microsoft’s Dismal Earnings Report Really Tells You / Companies / Microsoft

By: ...

MoneyMorning.com Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: The markets are quiet right now, even the typically volatile technology sector. But as the saying goes, past is prologue. Recent events surrounding Microsoft Inc. (NYSE:MSFT) presage big investment opportunities to come.

Microsoft’s latest earnings report landed with a resounding thud last week, catching millions of investors by surprise and prompting yet another round of debate about where to invest your “tech” dollars.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Gold And Silver Charts Are The Compelling Story. Fundamentals Do Not Apply / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Michael_Noonan

Not in 2013, not in 2014, and so far, nothing positive for the price of gold and silver has developed in what looks like for the balance of 2015. Most of the highly regarded gold and silver sites and bloggers have been expecting an upside breakout, some even saying an explosive breakout. As we have been saying for the past few years, the "eyes" have it. Just by following developing price activity, in chart form, it is more than obvious that price continues to languish at recent 4 -5 year lows with NO signs of ending.

It does not matter how much gold China has bought, how many gold/silver coins have been sold to the public, even record numbers. It does not matter how low is the existing supply for silver and its excessive and growing demand. So far, it has not mattered how the miners have been suffering and are closing down operations.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

The Fed Can't Stop the Commodity Bear Market / Commodities / Commodities Trading

By: EWI

Only a shift in investor psychology -- i.e. the Elliott wave pattern -- can

For many commodity investors, the last four years have felt like one long, bad dream. The kind where you're tied to a railroad track as a train heads straight for you -- in slow motion. You can't move, can't scream, can't do anything but lay there and wait for the point of impact. On July 29, that point seemed closer than ever when the S&P GSCI index, a measure of a basket of 24 commodities, plunged to its lowest level in 13 years.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Markets Floor Monkeys and Decentralization of Risk / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015

By: John_Mauldin

As most of you know, I used to be a clerk on the floor of the old P. Coast options exchange in San Francisco. What a place. I could tell stories about that floor for weeks. The craziest things you ever heard.

But let’s keep it professional. The funny thing about a trading floor like the PCX (or the NYMEX, or the CME) is that you have winners and losers. You have big winners and big losers. You have people who blow themselves up. You have people who blow themselves up so spectacularly, they take a chunk out of their clearing firm.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Meet the Leader Who Turned Google Into a “Buy” / Companies / Google

By: ...

MoneyMorning.com Michael A. Robinson writes: For more than a year now, I have been one of the few analysts saying Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL) was set for a rally.

In several of our chats I’ve said that with this one stock you get both an ETF on the future and a company that produces great profit margins today.

To be sure, the stock lagged the overall market over the past few months. That’s largely because industry analysts thought Google’s futuristic ambitions would shred profits.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

QE Fails In Japan: Inflation Nonexistent, Consumer Spending Drops, More Ease Coming / Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing

By: John_Rubino

After nearly three decades of stagnation, Japan in 2013 went all-in, ordering its central bank, the Bank of Japan, to buy pretty much every bond on the market with newly-created yen. The BoJ's balance sheet -- a rough proxy for the amount of money it has created and dumped into the economy -- soared at a rate that dwarfs, in relation to GDP, the US Fed's QE programs.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Why Your Brokerage Account Isn’t as Safe as You Think It Is / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest

By: Casey_Research

By E.B. Tucker

Imagine logging into your brokerage account tomorrow and finding out that it’s frozen.

Not just your account… every customer account at your brokerage is frozen.

You can’t buy stocks. You can’t sell stocks. You can’t move money out of the account.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Mining Companies, Regulators Deathly Silent after Midnight Raid on Gold Prices / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: MoneyMetals

With gold and silver on the defensive following a dramatic midnight raid on gold prices last week, Mike Gleason reached out to Chris Powell, Secretary Treasurer at the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, also known as GATA to discuss possible gold price manipulation.

Mike Gleason: Several days ago, we had another attack on the gold market – right as it was holding above a critical price support zone. Someone sold several billions of dollars in gold futures contracts during the wee hours of the night immediately before the Chinese trading day began. It happened during a time of low liquidity like it normally does, and it took the price down over $40 in the matter of a few seconds, halting trading twice for a brief period. What are we to make of all this Chris?

Saturday, August 01, 2015

The Greek Coup: Liquidity as a Weapon of Coercion / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis

By: Ellen_Brown

“My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract.” — The Godfather (1972)

In the modern global banking system, all banks need a credit line with the central bank in order to be part of the payments system. Choking off that credit line was a form of blackmail the Greek government couldn’t refuse.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Gold’s Amazing Resiliency / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Zeal_LLC

Gold has certainly had a rough summer, facing withering selling pressure from record futures shorting.  The resulting new secular lows have greatly exacerbated the already-extreme bearish psychology long plaguing this metal.  But considering the howling headwinds gold has suffered in recent years, it has actually proved amazingly resilient.  This indicates strong latent demand due to accelerate as sentiment shifts.

The consensus view on gold today is overwhelmingly bearish, with virtually everyone convinced it is doomed to spiral lower indefinitely.  They argue that gold yields nothing, so therefore why bother owning it?  Especially with the first Fed rate hikes in over 9 years looming!  As interest rates begin inexorably mean reverting higher, rising yields will leave gold even farther behind.  Keynes’ “barbarous relic” can’t compete.

Friday, July 31, 2015

In Gold We Trust 2015 / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

As always in June, Incrementum AG (an independent asset management & wealth management company based in the Principality of Liechtenstein) published its annual “In Gold We Trust” report, the extended version of which can be downloaded here. We know that it was published one month ago; however, it took a while to dig through the 140-page text. Because it offers many interesting insights into the current global economy and the gold market, we provide a short summary for you today.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Gold and Silver Markets in Limbo / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: Alasdair_Macleod

Gold and silver remain close to their lows for the year, discouraged as usual by dollar resilience. Precious metals appear to be in limbo: speculative buyers are discouraged above all by their disappointing performance during the Greek crisis, and the possibility that a Chinese stock market crash might lead to forced selling of gold by Chinese speculators. So far, the latter concern has proved unfounded with public demand in China accelerating on lower prices and exceeding global mine output on its own.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Silver – A Century of Prices / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: DeviantInvestor

The graph below shows 100 years of silver and crude oil prices on a log scale using the annual average of daily prices.  Example:  The price of silver peaked in 1980 at about $50 but the smoothed annual average was about $16.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Demand for Gold Bullion Surges – Perth Mint, and U.S. Mint Cannot Meet Demand / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015

By: GoldCore

- Perth Mint sees surge in demand and cannot keep up with demand
- “Our biggest restriction is the amount of unrefined gold we’re getting in from producers”
- Very high demand for Perth Mint coins, bars coming from Asia, U.S. and Europe
- U.S. Mint sees highest sales of gold coins in over 2 years
- U.S. Mint restrictions on silver coins due to very high demand
- Gold sentiment has moved from despondency to depression (see chart)
- Current negative sentiment despite strong demand is good contrarian indicator