Sunday, June 03, 2018
Climate Change Mass Extinction - Birds, Bees and Bugs: Going Going Gone / Politics / Climate Change
By: Richard_Mills
The twitter of birds, the buzzing of bees, the drone of insects are all welcome signs of spring, but could species reduction or extinction, made worse by climate change, mute these sounds to the point where we will have to install apps on our phones to mimic them?
The idea of a silent spring might seem a tad alarmist, but the fate of the world’s wildlife - both land-based and marine - is not looking good. According to research by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London, over the past 40 years the number of wild animals living on Earth has been cut in half. Among the most hard-hit species are forest elephants in central Africa, where deaths by poachers now exceed birth rates, the Hoolock gibbon in Bangladesh, the European meadow and asp vipers, grey partridges in the UK and curlew sandpipers in Australia.
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
The EU Respond Angerly to Trump’s Steel and Aluminium Tariffs / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ben_Jardine
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
Making Italy Great Again / Politics / Italy
By: Peter_Schiff
This week, market watchers around the world are justifiably fixated with the high-stakes, high-drama political developments unfolding in Italy. While a political crisis in the world’s 9th largest economy (International Monetary Fund figures, 4/17/18) would normally not be enough to cause an international meltdown, given how thin the global economic ice has become as a result of ever-increasing debt loads, even small disruptions can create systemic problems. But from my perspective, what makes the Italian drama so interesting is that it parallels so precisely developments in the United States. It’s amazing that more Americans do not realize, that when looking at Italy, they are looking at a fun house mirror reflection of the United States.
Saturday, June 02, 2018
Silver Mining Stocks SIL ETF Fundamentals / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018
By: Zeal_LLC
The major silver miners’ stocks remain deeply out of favor, languishing near multi-year lows. Of course that reflects investors’ lack of interest in silver itself. It has greatly lagged, not following gold higher like usual over the past year and a half. That’s really torpedoed silver-stock sentiment, making for a challenging environment for silver miners. But they’re weathering it as their recently-released Q1’18 results show.
Four times a year publicly-traded companies release treasure troves of valuable information in the form of quarterly reports. Companies trading in the States are required to file 10-Qs with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by 45 calendar days after quarter-ends. Canadian companies have similar requirements. In other countries with half-year reporting, many companies still partially report quarterly.
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
Buckle Up Deflationists… You’re Getting Taken to the Cleaners / Economics / Inflation
By: Graham_Summers
The current view trending in social media as well as most of the financial media is that Italy is about to trigger a systemic collapse of Europe.
Those proposing this theory are using charts of Italy’s bond yields and stock market that focus on the last few years when the country was being priced at a ridiculously low risk.
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
Is the EU About to Collapse? Stocks Don’t Think So / Politics / European Stock Markets
By: Graham_Summers
The “Italy Crisis” is over.
I know the headlines read as though Italy was collapsing and the Euro is about to implode. But the headlines are reporting on yesterday’s news.
The collapse of the Italy government means a new election. That, in turn, means a pro-Euro politician heading Italy. And that in turn means the Italy Crisis is over.
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Saturday, June 02, 2018
Crude Oil Price Bulls’ Wishes vs. Reality / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Nadia_Simmons
Wednesday’s rally that followed Tuesday’s reversal gave hope for a sustainable move higher. But only to those, who focus on the daily price movement only, without taking bigger picture into consideration. As we explained last Friday, there were bearish implications of the weekly candlestick pattern even before it was completed. In the following analyses we wrote the same about the monthly candlestick and since May is over, the candlestick is completed, and we can say that our previous expectations were met. What do the more long-term patterns indicate for the crude oil’s future and how much can we trust the recent rally?
Friday, June 01, 2018
This is Italy Not Sparta / Politics / Italy
By: Raul_I_Meijer
“European Stocks Surge Celebrating New Spanish, Italian Governments”, says a Zero Hedge headline. “Markets Breathe Easier As Italy Government Sworn In”, proclaims Reuters. And I’m thinking: these markets are crazy, and none of this will last more than a few days. Or hours. The new Italian government is not the end of a problem, it’s the beginning of many of them.
And Italy is far from the only problem. The new Spanish government will be headed by Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, who manoeuvred well to oust sitting PM Rajoy, but he also recently saw the worst election result in his party’s history. Not exactly solid ground. Moreover, he needed the support of Catalan factions, and will have to reverse much of Rajoy’s actions on the Catalunya issue, including probably the release from prison of those responsible for the independence referendum.
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Friday, June 01, 2018
Once Again, Gold Is Not Commodit / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
We know this… we really know it. This is awkward. Gold is a metal. This is why it used to be money for thousands of years: it was rare, tangible and its supply couldn’t be increased at will. An ideal store of value. So why are we saying that gold is not commodity?
We mean here not the physical attributes of gold, but the approach to valuing it. You can model it either as a currency, or as a commodity. From the investment point of view, we always treated gold as a currency, so in the previous part of this edition of the Market Overview, we discussed – in line with that approach – the three most important drivers affecting the price of gold. Now, we will present the final critique of treating gold as a commodity.
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Friday, June 01, 2018
Gold Stocks Back in the Volatility Saddle Again / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2018
By: The_Gold_Report
Precious metals expert Michael Ballanger dissects his volatility trades.
One week ago today, I made the following commentary:
Read full article... Read full article..."Finally, I am officially revisiting the "volatility trade" (VIX: CBOE Volatililty Index) but unlike February where I used the UVXY (ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short) as my proxy for the increase in volatility, I am using the TVIX (VelocityShares Daily 2X VIX ST ETN) because it is a double leverage ETF for the VIX but has better leverage than the UVXY. UVXY used to be a triple-leverage play on volatility but the slippage due to its dependence on futures became too difficult to navigate and they cut the leverage from 3:1 to 2:1. I had a 250% gain on this in February but gave back 9.84% in April. I am long 50% of the TVIX position from yesterday at $4.95 and am using the opening this morning to add another 25% in the $5.25 range. I will again use a 10% stop-loss but since the 52-week low is $4.60, that will be the exit level. Upside target will be $8.00 remembering of course that the 52-week high was $26.56.
The month of May is rapidly coming to a close, which starts what is historically the worst six months of the year. With the situations in Turkey and Italy worsening, with the North Korean summit in question, central banks engaged in "quantitative tightening," rising oil prices, and the possibility that the China-U.S. trade talks go south, markets are going to be in peril as summer illiquidity arrives. For this reason, gold "should" be the go-to asset, but I am banking on volatility rather than gold as the preferred method of riding the correction."
Friday, June 01, 2018
Here Is Next Week's News In Advance -- How Will You Trade It? / InvestorEducation / Learn to Trade
By: Avi_Gilburt
The great majority of market participants believe that "the fate of markets is inextricably intertwined with the ebb and flow of geopolitics." So, if I share with you “secret” news that will hit the wires next week, you should be able to make a killing with such information. Right?
While I strongly disagree with this proposition, at least based upon my in-depth study of decades of stock market history, this perspective is so engrained in the investment process of advisors and analysts alike that it is followed even more than the Bible.
So, let’s test this proposition.
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Friday, June 01, 2018
A Purrrfect Gold Price Setup! / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Peter_Degraaf
Featured is the weekly gold chart. The green arrows point to ‘upside reversals’, developing after price dropped below the 50WMA. The blue arrows point to a positive follow-through, following an upside reversal. A similar situation back in December enabled gold to rise for 5 out of 6 weeks! The current rise has the potential to jump above the $1365 resistance area with a target at $1395. The RSI is neutral, but the A/D line is positive. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, June 01, 2018
What is More Reliable than the Andrews Pitchfork? / InvestorEducation / Technical Analysis
By: Ron_Jaenisch
When my friend Professor Alan Hall Andrews was most active as a trader and writer it was prior to 1980. After examining his writings and use (in the 1970’s) of the various lines related to the median lines verses the action reaction lines, it is easy to come to the conclusion that he favored the Action Reaction lines over what is commonly referred to as the Andrews Pitchfork. To answer this question for myself I examined various concepts that Andrews taught in his writings, shortly prior to his passing on found that most of them were median line related. This was when he came up with the modified Schiff line which is actually a derivative of a trend line. Trend lines are lines he advocated using along with the Action Reaction Lines in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Emerging Market Meltdown Could Undermine Oil Price Rally / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
Saudi Arabia and Russia just destroyed the oil price rally, potentially putting an end to all the speculation about what the group might do next. But higher production doesn’t necessarily mean higher oil prices are entirely out of the question, and in fact, the oil market is still faced with a ton of uncertainty.
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Thursday, May 31, 2018
What Happens Next When the Euro Falls 6 Weeks in a Row / Currencies / Euro
By: Troy_Bombardia
The Euro has been going down recently.
- The EURUSD is already down 6 weeks in a row.
- If it closes lower this Friday than it did last Friday, the EURUSD will be down 7 weeks on a row.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Phantom Blips On The Stock Market Chart – Don’t Lose Focus - Free Silver! / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Recent news seems to have everyone concerned about Italy, global debts, Europe and the potential for a debt contagion exploding into the markets. Yet, our research into price activity says this market is just getting started with an upside swing that could be massive. Take a few minutes to review our current research to see why we believe the extended level of fear in the markets is related to the recent February price rotation and a generally accepted erroneous Elliot Wave Count.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Topping USD’s Implications for Gold Investors / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: P_Radomski_CFA
The euro plunged, the USD Index soared and gold… just stayed put. There was no meaningful action except for the big intraday volatility that ended in a rather small decline. Can one infer anything at all from the above combination of factors? Yes, if one knows where to look.
Let’s start by recalling what was the likely reason behind the recent strength in the precious metals in the first place and why did gold move (a bit) higher along with the USD Index.
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Thursday, May 31, 2018
UKGC Set to Make Online Gambling Industry More Risk-Free / Personal_Finance / Gambling
By: Varun_Kumar
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Thursday, May 31, 2018
This is When Gold Will Soar… / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne
Despite the insistence of some, precious metals have not been in a bull market. After a big pop at the start of 2016, the sector has trended lower. Sure, Gold has traded up towards a major breakout but Silver and the gold stocks have trended lower. When the US Dollar corrected significantly, the stock market outperformed precious metals. Does that sound like a Gold bull market to you? The moribund performance has left us wondering what could turn the tide. A quick study of Fed history with the context of current conditions is very instructive as to when Gold could begin a true bull market.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Italy Roils Global Capital Markets – What Next? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
By: Chris_Vermeulen
After a fairly solid rally took place over the past few weeks in the US majors, fresh concerns originating from Italy roiled the markets early on Tuesday, May 29. The concern is really related to the formation of a coalition government in Italy and the excessive debt issues plaguing Italy and many other European Union countries. In our opinion, the European Union has a number of issues that are rearing their ugly heads and most of these are related to disparities between opportunities, capital flows, debt and consumer optimism related to the parity of the EU economic activities. In other words, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Right now, Greece and Italy are the two squeaky wheels with Portugal, Cyprus and Belgium following right behind.