Friday, February 09, 2018

Mars and Mercury Decide the Fate of the U.S. Dollar and Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

The U.S. dollar has been bleeding recently, despite all the Fed’s tightening efforts and the passage of Trump’s tax cuts. An accelerating economy, rising interest rates and pro-growth reforms should logically drive the value of the American currency. But they didn’t.

Given the strong negative correlation between the greenback and gold, finding the cause behind the dollar’s wounds is highly critical. The most common explanation among analysts is Trump the Destroyer. It shouldn’t be surprising, as the U.S. President is known for his passion for trade protectionism. He also explicitly favors the weak currency to help the exporters. So maybe Trump just got what he wanted?

Friday, February 09, 2018

Wells Fargo WFC Remains Bullish / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: ElliottWave-Forecast

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is the world’s second-largest bank by market capitalization and the third largest bank in the U.S. by assets.

Last week, the Bank was fined $185M by the FED for ‘widespread illegal practices’ because of the recent fake accounts scandal and it was banned from growing until it convinces authorities it’s addressing shortcomings.

Friday, February 09, 2018

Stock Market Roller Coaster Crash Ride Down to Dow Forecast 23,000 / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The stock market like a roller coaster rockets higher one day only to plunge lower the next. That is what this week has been like, a roller coaster ride. Starting the week with a Monday late session 1175 point plunge, bouncing Tuesday by 570 points to 24,912. Taking a breather on Wednesday by closing steady at 24,893, then plunged once more yesterday (Thursday) by over 1000 points, closing at 23,860, with the Dow now down over 10% from its 2018 high.

Friday, February 09, 2018

What Is Stock Market Volatility Telling Us Now? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Barry_M_Ferguson

In my last article, ‘Plunge Protection Team Spotted Atop Mt. Everest’ - 02/02/18,  I warned readers that the Plunge Protection Team was again active. I posted the article on my blog www.bmfinvest.blogspot.com. This article was published as well on the site www.marketoracle.co.uk and almost nowhere else. Let me say ‘kudos’ to the marketoracle.co.uk publisher Nadeem Walayat for not only having the guts to publish the truth but also the expertise to understand what is happening. I start everyday with a thorough reading of the articles published on marketoracle.co.uk as it is one of the few sites where writers like myself are given a forum. Almost all the other supposed ‘investment’ sites are filled with powder puff CNBC kind of stuff. I can assure readers that if they are not reading articles posted on marketoracle.co.uk, they are not getting a complete idea of important information.

Friday, February 09, 2018

Remember When Stocks Only Went Up? / Companies / Company Chart Analysis

By: John_Rubino

Long ago in a distant galaxy called “2017,” stock prices rose every day. And the people were happy. With paper profits in hand they maxed out their credit cards and bank lines to buy flat-screen TVs and cars and cover their student loans.

Then one day a darkness began to spread. Stocks began to move in an unfamiliar way that felt profoundly wrong. They went “down” instead of up, and paper profits began to shrink. The people consulted their price charts and were confused to find them written in an unfamiliar language full of oddly sloped lines and negative numbers.

Friday, February 09, 2018

Banks Ban Bitcoin Purchases Using Credit Cards / Currencies / Bitcoin

By: EconMatters

Bitcoin was at $15,000 when I wrote this post before Christmas warning against getting involved in the bitcoin or any cryptocurrency market.  Bitcoin has crashed to $8,000 today losing about 50% of its value in two months. 

Friday, February 09, 2018

Crude Oil $100 Price in 2019? / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: EconMatters

The stock market is a dangerous place to be right now. Watching VIX spiked from 17 to 50+ then crashing back to 30 within two days can certainly cause a cardiac arrest or two. What’s even worse is that investors took this little dip as a buying opportunity throwing more good money at this deformed market. On Tuesday U.S. stocks rebounded to post the biggest rally in 15 months. We have discussed many times that stocks have a long way to go before any normalcy may be restored. On that note, let’s move to the oil/gasoline market instead.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Invest by Watching News? Accept These Pitfalls / InvestorEducation / Learning to Invest

By: EWI

Many investors "operate under the assumption that events dictate market movements." They don't.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

The Most Important Trendlines For Stock Investors / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Graham_Summers

The bond market has done the Fed’s job for it.

The reality is that the Fed is way behind the curve. True, the Fed is raising rates, but it is not raising them fast enough. The market was CLEARLY in a parabolic rise based on the fact financial conditions were too loose.

So what happened?

Thursday, February 08, 2018

A Shot Across The Bow for Stock Market Investors / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: WMA

Investor complacency was rife. Since January 2016 investors have not experienced any significant corrective action on equity markets. Volatility had been unprecedentedly subdued. The “short vol” trade was a slam-dunk that lured in many investors, most of whom did not understand the risks of trading volatility.  

Over the past week, complacent investors who forgot that equity markets remain a risky asset received a brutal wake-up call. A 3000 point wipe-out on the Dow over a couple days was not expected by anyone, to say the least.  Dip-buyers who have become accustomed to buying the -10 point intraday pull-backs on the S&P 500 got reacquainted with the notion of stop-losses. Those gambling in the volatility products hopefully understand now that the VIX is not an asset class and benefits no one. Indeed, the VIX can – and did – double in value. For an inverse VIX ETF, well that means the product goes to zero. And that is just what the Velocity Shares Inverse VIX fund (XIV) did this past week. Many inverse VIX ETNs were halted. In our daily market update for February 8, we warn of another class of ETFs that may also in turn implode in the event of extreme price movements.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Three Truths about Stock Market Sell-Off Gold Investors Should Know / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Arkadiusz_Sieron

Until recently, the financial press was reporting confidence in the global economy in 2018. Participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos were full of optimism and they outdid each other in upgrading their forecasts. One week later, the global stock market plunged, making analysts stupefied. “As equities tumbled, gold should shine”, almost everyone thought. But that’s not what we saw. What really happened, then?

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Stock Market Struggle Begins to Avert the Decline / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

SPX futures are struggling to take back the losses that occurred just after the bell yesterday. That puts the fair market value at about 12 points below the close. There may be a bounce, but it may not last.

At 7:00 am ZeroHedge wrote, “U.S. stock index futures turn negative in an illiquid, volatile session as investor sentiment has yet to stabilize amid doubts whether the U.S. equity selloff is over as yields remain just south of the critical 2.85% level. S&P E-mini contracts slid 0.1%, while the VIX is up 1% to 28.1 after 2 days of declines. Including fair value, the Dow is expected to have an implied open of over 200 points lower while the S&P will open around 2,665.”

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Stock Market, Gold and Silver Gold Consolidation Time (The Easy Trade has Ended) / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Rambus_Chartology

Before we look at todays charts I would like to reiterate once more that we have traded one of the best bull markets runs in history. There was hardly a time over the last year or so that the stock markets were down more than 2 or 3 days in a row. It seemed like everyday I would log on to Stock Charts in the morning the SPX would always be up 3 to 5 points. It was just a steady move higher with little volatility.

Last Friday that nice gentle uptrend we had grown accustomed to came to an exciting climax. What we are experiencing right now is the beginning of some volatility that is going to take some time to get back under control. Think of dropping a super ball off the top of the Empire State building. First you get a really big bounce followed by a big decline then another bounce that is less strong with the next bounce getting weaker. At some point the initial volatility will be reduced back into normal price action.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Peak Gold: 2017 Supply Flat As China Output Falls By 9% / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018

By: GoldCore

– China gold production falls by 9% to 420.5t in 2017
– Chinese gold demand rose 4% to 953.3t in same period
– China is largest producer and accounts for 15% of global gold production
– China does not export gold. Increasing foreign gold acquisitions to meet demand
– Global gold production flat – 3,269t in ’17 from 3,263t in ’16, smallest increase since ’08
– Peak Gold is here: supply set to fall gradually while global demand remains robust

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Precious Metals, Stock Market, Volatility, and Bitcoin Price Predictions Video / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2018

By: Chris_Vermeulen

Our articles, Technical Trading Mastery book, and 3 Hour Trading Video Course are designed for both traders and investors to explore the tools and techniques that discretionary and algorithmic traders need to profit in today’s competitive markets. Created with the serious trader and investor in mind – whether beginner or professional – our approach will put you on the path to win. Understanding market structure, trend identification, cycle analysis, volatility, volume, when and when to trade, position management, and how to put it all together so that you have a winning edge.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

Stock Market Retracements Calculated / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018

By: Anthony_Cherniawski

SPX made a 48.5% retracement at 2727.67 this morning. The extension stayed within the confines of the Broadening Wedge that I had pointed out yesterday. This morning appears to be a “run the stops” exercise since the SPX volume was tepid and the only way to get liquidity was to force the sale of those who had entered short yesterday. I do not use stop losses for that reason.

Unfortunately, investors are being told that this correction is healthy and a buying opportunity. Goldman Sachs appears to be “talking its book.”

Thursday, February 08, 2018

U.S. Dollar Appears to be Bottoming. Is this the End of the Commodities Rally? / Commodities / Commodities Trading

By: Donald_W_Dony

The U.S. dollar appears to be finding a floor at $0.885 after six weeks of sharp declines. What does that mean to commodity prices?

The "Big dollar" slid almost six percent since mid-December aiding many commodity prices to stage a strong rally.

Gold bounced up 8.4 percent, silver soared 10 percent and WTI roar upward by 15 percent.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

VIDEO: Tree Protesters Occupy Sheffield Town Hall City Council Chamber / Local / Sheffield

By: N_Walayat

At the end of Wednesdays monthly Sheffield city council meeting at about 8.30pm, about 20 tree protesters who had been watching the proceedings from the gallery came down and occupied the Council chamber, unfurling a banner "Show us the contract please" referring to the £2.2 billion PFI contract with Amey, and the protesters seating themselves where the Council leader and cabinet members were seated just minutes earlier. The police were called but as of writing have not taken any action as the occupation enters its 6th hour.

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Is The 37 Year Bullish US Treasury Bond Market Ending? / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: ElliottWave-Forecast

The bond market has enjoyed a strong bull market for nearly four decades with yields continuing to go lower. The bull market has been going on for so long that no current active fund manager can imagine what it looks like when interest rates were to be like the 1980s at 20%. If people in the 1980s started trading in their early thirties, they would have been almost 70 years old by now, so chances are they are not active in the market anymore.

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Oil Prices Ravaged By Financial Turmoil / Commodities / Crude Oil

By: OilPrice_Com

Oil prices fell back suddenly over the last few trading sessions, dragged down by some forces beyond the oil market.

The steady decline of the U.S. dollar has helped drive up crude prices for weeks, but that came to an abrupt halt last week. A rebound for the greenback led to a steep decline in oil prices on Friday.

At the same time, sudden turmoil in the broader financial system also bled over into the oil market. Volatility in the stock market flared up on Friday, sparking the sharpest single-day upheaval in years.