Friday, November 03, 2017
Here’s Why Catalonia Has Put The EU In Danger / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY JACOB L. SHAPIRO : Catalonia is vying to become Europe’s newest nation-state, but this is a battle Catalonia ultimately can’t win.
Only 51.8% of members in the Catalan parliament supported the independence declaration. That means even Catalans themselves are divided over whether Catalonia should secede from Spain.
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Friday, November 03, 2017
SPX Trying to Digest a Whopper of a Monthly Labor Report / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX futures are flat, trying to digest a big letdown in the BLS October Employment Situation Report. To make matters worse, 216,000 of the 261,000 reported new jobs are from a hypothetical model called the CES Birth/Death Model.
ZeroHedge reports, “Well, with virtually everyone expecting a 300K+ payrolls number after last month's negative hurricane-distorted print, and with whispers of a 400K print floating around, it only made sense that not only would payrolls disappoint, printing at 261K, one standard deviation below the 310K consensus estimate (and that even with a whopping 89,000 waiters and bartenders added)”
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Friday, November 03, 2017
GBP/USD – Currency Bulls vs. mid-October Highs / Currencies / British Pound
By: Nadia_Simmons
Although GBP/USD increased a bit recently, the resistance area created by the mid-October highs continues to keep gains in check. What’s next for the exchange rate?
Friday, November 03, 2017
We Have A Bifurcated Precious Metals Market / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Avi_Gilburt
First published on Sunday Oct 29 for members of ElliottWaveTrader.net: There is no doubt that the action we have experienced in the metals complex in 2017 has been exceptionally frustrating, especially as the market presented us with several break out set ups that did not follow through. And, when a larger bullish structure presents you with break out set ups, probabilities suggest you have to favor those set ups, as I did in 2017.
Friday, November 03, 2017
Analyzing the Mainstream Analysts: Are Silver SLV Holdings Really Plummeting? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldSilver
Jeff Clark : It was a headline designed for shock value. The title screamed, Investors Dumping SLV at Fastest Pace in 6 Years!
The headline came from Bloomberg, the epitome of “mainstream” news in my opinion. The article reported that investors were “dumping” holdings in SLV, the largest silver exchange-traded fund. They claimed the silver market had been “hit by a gale force, spurring an exit from ETFs backed by the metal.”
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Friday, November 03, 2017
Someone doesn't want the Stock Market to decline / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The VIX got walloped just after challenging the 50-day Moving Average this morning. It appears that someone didn’t want to see the equities markets go down after the tax plan was announced. Thus far the lows are higher, so there is no apparent threat to the VIX. However, it may mean that the “big one” may come overnight so they can blame it on other news.
Friday, November 03, 2017
Charts Showing Extreme Social Fragmentation in the US / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
I’m going to show you three graphs that sum up the study discerning political polarization that has been conducted since 1994.
These three charts look at the years 1994, 2004, and 2017. Even as late as 2004, notice the broad crossover between the median Democrat and median Republican. And then notice how wide the divide is today.
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Friday, November 03, 2017
Bank of England Base Rate increases to 0.50% / Personal_Finance / UK Interest Rates
By: MoneyFacts
The Bank of England’s decision to increase interest rates from 0.25% to 0.50% marks the first increase to base rate in over 10 years, and is the result of higher inflation and persistent uncertainty surrounding Brexit. What does this mean for the average consumer?
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
Bank of England Hikes UK Interest Rates 100%, Reversing BREXIT PANIC Cut! / Interest-Rates / UK Interest Rates
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Bank of England with much forewarning hiked UK interest rates by 100% today, raising the base interest rate from 0.25% to 0.5%. However, before everyone starts to panic that this heralds the start towards of rates rising to pre 2008 levels, instead the reality is that all that the Bank of England has done is to reverse the PANIC BREXIT INTEREST RATE CUT of August 2016. Which had seen the Bank of England cut interest rates to there lowest levels in the Bank of England's 320 year history. Which followed over 7 years of rates being held at 0.5% the duration of which had seen virtually ALL economists reveal the true extent of their ineptitude as they had collectively consistently forecast that UK Interest rates were always just about to head higher, that a a series of rate hikes were always just months away, which not only never materialised but culminated in the reality of a RATE CUT last year!
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Fireworks Dangers Safety Tips for Kids, School Children on Guy Fawkes Bonfire Night 2017 / ConsumerWatch / Health and Safety
By: Anika_Walayat
It's going to be bonfire night again soon and already groups of teens can be seen roaming the streets letting off fireworks in all directions. So here is a timely reminder that fireworks can be VERY DANGEROUS if not handled correctly even for adults, which is why children should never handle fireworks!
Thursday, November 02, 2017
NZDUSD Failed To Break Below 0.6817 Support / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Franco_Shao
The NZDUSD pair failed in its attempt to break below 0.6817 support and bounced off to 0.6940 area, suggesting that consolidation for the downtrend from 0.7557 is needed. Further rally would likely be seen in the coming days and next target would be at 0.7000 area.
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Who Will Be the Next Fed Chief - And Why It Matters / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dan_Steinbock
Janet Yellen's term is ending at the Federal Reserve. With new appointments, President Trump can indirectly shape US monetary policy for years to come - for better or worse. Serving as the “epitome of calm,” Fed chief Ben Bernanke responded to the global financial crisis by cutting the federal funds rate to zero and initiating rounds of quantitative easing (QE) soon thereafter.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
Do Fundamentals Drive Bitcoin? Are You Kidding Me? / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Avi_Gilburt
Is Bitcoin worth over $6600? Well, that is the price traders are bidding for it when this article was written.
Every MBA student is taught many means of evaluating or valuing securities. Discounted cash-flow and Capital Asset Pricing Models are a couple of valuation methods. Moreover, fundamental oriented stock traders tend to use ratios like Price to Sales, Price to Earnings or Price to Book to value stocks.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
Government Finances and Gold - Cautionary Tale told in Four Charts / Interest-Rates / US Debt
By: Michael_J_Kosares
“President Trump, in complete contradiction to candidate Trump, has praised Yellen for being a ‘low-interest-rate-person.’ One reason Trump may have changed his position is that, like most first-term presidents, he thinks low interest rates will help him win reelection. Trump may also realize that his welfare and warfare spending plans require an accommodative Fed to monetize the federal debt. The truth is President Trump’s embrace of status quo monetary policy could prove fatal to both his presidency and the American economy.” – Ron Paul, Institute for Peace and Prosperity
Editor’s note: This issue of our newsletter features several interactive, live charts offered in conjunction with the St. Louis Federal Reserve and the ICE Benchmark Administration/LBMA. You can access statistical details by moving your cursor over the charts. If the chart does not automatically update, please move the toggle button on the year bar all the way to the right. We invite you to bookmark this edition for future reference.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
Regulation Is Killing Community Banks - Public Banks Can Revive Them / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: Ellen_Brown
At his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said, "regulation is killing community banks." If the process is not reversed, he warned, we could "end up in a world where we have four big banks in this country." That would be bad for both jobs and the economy. "I think that we all appreciate the engine of growth is with small and medium-sized businesses," said Mnuchin. "We're losing the ability for small and medium-sized banks to make good loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the community, where they understand those credit risks better than anybody else."
Thursday, November 02, 2017
More Trade Barriers Are Coming—Make Sure You’re On The Right Side / Economics / Protectionism
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : If you think economics is boring, bring up “free trade” and see what happens. I guarantee sparks will fly.
Some people preach free trade’s many blessings. Others curse the very idea, insisting free trade hurts honest working people.
Lately, this has become more than a theoretical argument.
President Trump came into office pledging to renegotiate or cancel trade agreements he thought unfair to the US. Meanwhile, the UK seems headed toward a “hard Brexit” from the European Union.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
The Magnitude of Job Loss We Will See in the Next 20 Years Is Staggering / Economics / Employment
By: John_Mauldin
In the next 20 years, we will see more change and improvement than we’ve seen in the last hundred. Think where we were 100 years ago and how much has changed since then. That much and more is going to happen in the next two decades.
Global society really is going to transform that fast.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
Formidable Fort of Forex / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Kavinesh_A
Trading has increased enormously over the years and has been impacting the markets in a very commendable manner. The importance of money markets, the economic awareness of the trader, the finances. Which are to be carefully worked out and many more aspects which have to be sorted every time the come on to the table which need to be addressed. So trading isn't any child's play and is quite demanding at times which make the crux of important decision making as well which just not relies on one or two aspects but on a very wide aspect as well pertaining to the subject such as the role of foreign exchange markets as well on it.
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Invest In Gold To Defend Against Bail-ins / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldCore
– Italy’s Veneto banking meltdown destroyed 200,000 savers and 40,000 businesses
– EU bail-in rules have wiped out billions for savers and and businesses, with more at risk
– Bail-ins are not unique to Italy, all Western savers are at risk of seeing savings disappear
– Counterparty-free, physical gold bullion is best defence against bail-ins
Thursday, November 02, 2017
Investing in Solar Energy : SunPower SPWR / Companies / Solar Energy
By: ElliottWave-Forecast
SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) is the biggest commercial solar company in the U.S. The energy company designs manufactures and delivers high-performance solar electric systems worldwide for residential commercial and utility-scale power plant customers. Its high-efficiency solar modules and a commercial solution called Helix makes solar projects turnkey for installers, helping businesses, schools, and municipalities across the country save money by going solar.