Sunday, July 30, 2017
Stock Market SPX Uptrending Again After Minuscule Correction / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Tony_Caldaro
The week started at SPX 2473. With nothing more than a pullback to SPX 2466 on Monday, the market worked its way to a new all-time high at 2484 on Thursday. After opening at the high the market started to pullback, then sold off to SPX 2460 in the afternoon. After that the market rebounded to end the week at SPX 2372. For the week the SPX/DOW were mixed, and the NDX/NAZ lost 0.20%. Economic reports were mostly positive, with no rate increase at the FOMC meeting. On the downtick: existing homes sales, plus jobless claims rose. On the uptick: consumer confidence/sentiment, new home sales, durable goods, and Q2 GDP. Next week’s reports will be highlighted by the ISMs and monthly payrolls. Best to your week!
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Gold And Silver – Value Remains Irrelevant To Price / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Michael_Noonan
Value is subjective, reflective of one’s feelings or opinions. In the minds of those who value gold, throughout the ages and around the world, this precious metal is deemed to have an intrinsic value superior to most other assets. The well-used adjective, intrinsic, is also subjective, construed as essential, belonging naturally in its association with gold. In the end, “intrinsic value” is elusive, a figment of one’s mind.
There are many, and we fall in this camp, who associate gold with an inherent preservation of wealth. This has been true throughout history but with intervening failures during some time frames. Failure may not be the most apt expression, but many detractors are happy to point out those times when gold did not retain its status as a wealth preserver, and in fact, losses were on the table for many who paid a price higher than for what their gold was sold. It happens. The net result of gold being a wealth preserver holds true, but with periodic, and some times substantial, yet temporary, reversals. This time will be no different.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Bitcoin Price Soars As Everyone Wants a Bitcoin Cash Lottery Ticket on August 1st / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Jeff_Berwick
Bitcoin has been soaring in recent days and it is likely due to the fact that there will be a bitcoin hard fork on August 1st.
Many speculated that a fork would cause the price of bitcoin to drop. But that is far from the case. And it makes sense that the price is actually increasing on this news because if you hold bitcoin properly (more on that soon) you will end up with both Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCC)... and we know from experience with the Ethereum fork into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, that the two combined can be worth much more than just the one.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Chinese Leverage To Kill Petro-Dollar / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: Jim_Willie_CB
The Chinese Govt is greatly irritated by the requirement to use USDollars in payment for crude oil in the global market. The Beijing officials finally have some leverage in arranging for a major deal to pay for crude oil in RMB currency, their Yuan. The negotiations have been in progress for a couple months. The development is not covered well in the financial press, not even in the alternative media. It will happen, just a matter of time. Its effect will be far reaching and likely devastating.
Saturday, July 29, 2017
America – Then and Now – Part 1 / Politics / US Politics
By: Andy_Sutton
Yesterday Andy had a chance to go on Liberty Talk Radio and talk about what is going on economically. We decided that despite what we felt was a great show, that it didn’t even scratch the surface in terms of the differences between how things used to be and how they are now. Particularly disturbing is the relative lack of understanding or willingness to even accept the changes that have taken place by the majority of the population. The latter is called ‘normalcy bias’. It is something ingrained in each of us as a human and either reinforced or stunted by our experiences. We aren’t sure how far down the road of ‘Then and Now’ we’ll get in today’s installment. There may be future installments.
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Potential Winners in Space Exploration / Politics / Technology
By: Rodney_Johnson
In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, October 12, 1957, a cold north wind blew through the streets of Baltimore. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees, but many of the people standing outside weren’t concerned about the chilly air.They trained their binoculars on the sky. A small, glowing object streaked through the darkness and changed their world forever. Footage shot from down below by a local TV cameraman ended up on the national news.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Are Cryptocurrencies for Real? / Currencies / BlockChain
By: Harry_Dent
Bitcoin. Blockchain. Ethereum. Veritaseum. Litecoin. Ripple. ICOs.
It seems like nowadays you can’t listen to or read the news without hearing something about cryptocurrencies. And it looks like investors are going crazy over it.
Ripple has gained 3,000% this year.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Investors Beating U.S. Stock Market Can Be Simple / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Adam_ODell
Americans like to buy American stocks.
Europeans prefer European stocks.
And Chinese investors… well, you guessed it, they go heavily into Chinese stocks.
This is the essence of a phenomenon called home country bias.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Baby Boomers Are Aging Quickly and Here’s How You Can Benefit / Companies / Demographics
By: Charles_Sizemore
If you’ve followed my writing for any length of time, you know how much respect I have for Harry and his demographic work.Believe it or not, Harry, and his approach to forecasting, gave me the confidence to help launch Peak Income – an income newsletter – at a time when most investors were terrified of yield-focused investments.
The consensus two years ago was that inflation and higher bond yields were just around the corner, which would’ve meant a rough ride for the kind of investments I recommend.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Silly Money Printing, Negative Real Rates, & Restricted Supply Form “Great Scenario for Gold” / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: MoneyMetals
Mike Gleason: It is my privilege now to welcome in Frank Holmes, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at U.S. Global Investors. Mr. Holmes has received various honors over the years, including being named America's Best Fund Manager for 2016 by the Mining Journal. He is also the co-author of the book The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing. And is a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business, as well as right here on the Money Metals Podcast.
Frank, welcome back and thanks for joining us again today. How are you?
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Professor Warns of Economic and Health Costs of Sheffield Tree Felling's / Local / Sheffield
By: Anika_Walayat
Professor Nigel Dunnett of the University of Sheffield today on BBC Look North warned of the economic and health consequences of the Amey / Labour City Council's extensive Sheffield trees felling programme that is now entering it's final stages with just 10% of 6000 targeted trees remaining standing. Whist the Council continues with is court case against Tree campaigners.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Weakening US Economy Could Ignite Rally in Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: HAA
John Grandits : One possible effect of the “America First” approach the Trump Administration vowed to take was a weaker US dollar. Shortly after we wrote about this earlier this year, the dollar index began a steady march lower, retreating 7% in just five months, from 102 in March to its current level of 95.
Not surprisingly, gold has risen almost 10% in US dollar terms during this time.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Fed Quantitative Tightening Bearish for Stocks / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Zeal_LLC
Ominously for the stock markets, the Federal Reserve is warning that quantitative tightening is coming later this year. The Fed is on the verge of starting to drain its vast seas of new money conjured out of thin air over the past decade or so. The looming end of this radically-unprecedented easy-money era is exceedingly bearish for these lofty stock markets, which have been grossly inflated for years by Fed QE.
Way back in December 2008, the first US stock panic in an entire century left the Fed frantic. Fearful of an extreme negative wealth effect spawning another depression, the Fed quickly forced its benchmark federal-funds rate to zero. Once that zero-interest-rate policy had been implemented, no more rate cuts were practical. ZIRP is terribly disruptive economically, fueling huge distortions. But negative rates are far worse.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
BEA US Economy Q2 2017 Estimates GDP Growth At 2.56% / Economics / US Economy
By: CMI
In their first (preliminary) estimate of the US GDP for the second quarter of 2017, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the US economy was growing at a +2.56% annual rate, up +1.14% from a downward revised first quarter.
Consumer spending rebounded, growing at a +1.93% annualized rate during the quarter, up +1.18% from the prior quarter and very similar to the fourth quarter of 2016. The inventory contraction of the prior quarter essentially disappeared (-0.02%), as did the previous robust growth in commercial fixed investment (at only +0.36%). Governmental spending rose slightly (+0.12%), reversing the prior quarter's contraction, and the growth rates for both exports (+0.48%) and imports (-0.31%) moderated.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Platinum and Palladium Investment Potential / Commodities / Platinum
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
In the previous sections of this edition of the Market Overview, we presented the demand and supply outlook for platinum and palladium. In that part, we would like to analyze the potential benefits of adding these precious metals into investment portfolio.
On the surface, platinum and palladium behave similarly to the yellow metal. Indeed, as the chart below shows, there is an important positive correlation between prices of these metals and gold. It should not be surprising as all four main precious metals – gold, silver, platinum, and palladium – are considered as currency, with an appropriate ISO 4217 code.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Why Russia’s Slumping Grain Yields Are So Bad For Putin / Politics / Russia
By: John_Mauldin
By Geopolitical Futures : Russia relies on wheat more than any other foodstuff as an important component of its food supply. In fact, roughly 70% of wheat produced in Russia annually is consumed domestically. From Siberia to the westernmost regions bordering Europe, wheat is a staple in most parts of the country.
In 2016, Russia became the world’s top grain exporter with a record production of 120 million tons of wheat, according to Russian statistics agency Rosstat. But poor weather conditions have affected this year’s production.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
One Of These 3 Black Swans Will Likely Trigger A Global Recession By End Of 2018 / Economics / Recession 2018
By: John_Mauldin
Exactly 10 years ago, we were months way from a world-shaking financial crisis.
By late 2006, we had an inverted yield curve steep to be a high-probability indicator of recession. I estimated at that time that the losses would be $400 billion at a minimum. Yet, most of my readers and fellow analysts told me I was way too bearish.
Turned out the losses topped well over $2 trillion and triggered the financial crisis and Great Recession.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Could USD/JPY go into Freefall? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX futures are down, but have not exceeded yesterday’s intraday low.
Today being Friday, there may be an effort to keep the decline from going too low. That suggests a probable bounce at Short-term support at 2457.17 to rally back to breakeven by the end of the day. Should this take place, it may offer another short entry opportunity by the end of the day. But this is only one outcome out of several possible scenarios. A second scenario may be an immediate launch into a Wave three scenario with a minimum 8-12% decline in the next three days. Yesterday may have been day one of a 4.3-day panic Cycle.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Will USD/CAD Drop Further? / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Nadia_Simmons
Yesterday, the greenback extended losses against the Canadian dollar, which resulted in a drop below the May 2016 low. Does it mean that the way to lower levels is open?
EUR/USD
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 28, 2017
Stock Market XIV Starting To Crack And The VIX Ends Its Streak / Stock-Markets / Volatility
By: Submissions
Mike Golembesky: Recent Price Action
This week the XIV continued to grind higher finally reaching a high of 96.98 on Wednesday afternoon. This high was followed by a very small move to the downside late in the day on Wednesday.
Thursday morning saw a slight recovery but by the noon lunch hour, the XIV started showing signs of weakness. By 12:30 the XIV began to move sharply lower finally bottoming at the 89.28 level, some 7.5% off of the high of the day.
Read full article... Read full article...