Thursday, April 28, 2016
The Central Banking Prisoner’s Dilemma: Fed Freezes, BoJ Stammers, Dollar Drops 2% Overnight / Politics / Central Banks
By: Jeff_Berwick
In today’s communist-style, centrally planned world, when big central bankers meet and make decisions, no matter how small, markets quake and currencies shake. And that’s what just happened.
Bankers at both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan met in the last 12 hours to decide where they would take monetary policy next. But when they sat down to make decisions, they were faced with a classic prisoner’s dilemma: Options were precluded. There was a lot they wanted to do but little they could do.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Silver: The “Five Year Plan” and the Great Leap Forward / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
By: DeviantInvestor
Five years ago paper silver contracts on the COMEX hit a multi-decade high over $48 on April 29, 2011.
At the end of April 2016 the silver price is bouncing around $17, down about 65% from its April 2011 high. The low occurred at about $13.60 in December of last year, when paper silver prices were down about 70% from their April 2011 high.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Michael Hudson: The Wall Street Economy Has Taken Over The Economy and Is Draining It! / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Gordon_T_Long
FRA Co-founder Gordon T. Long is joined by Professor Michael Hudson in discussing his concept of the FIRE economy and its influence on the production and consumption economy, along with some of his writings.
Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Killing the Host (2015), The Bubble and Beyond (2012), Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971), amongst many others.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Game the Housing Market With a High-value Property / Housing-Market / Home Improvements
By: Submissions
Endri Hasanaj writes:
The housing market is unpredictable at the best of times, but there’s always one sure-fire way to create the perfect house – make improvements that are both practical and aesthetically pleasing.
This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Depending on the area you live in, the value of your home will hit a glass ceiling no matter how many improvements you make to it. But if you can find a happy median between potential value increases and the projected cost of additions, you’ll break a profit.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Stock Market Uncertainty Following Economic Data, Earnings Releases - SP500 Still Close To 2,100 / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: Paul_Rejczak
Briefly: In our opinion, no speculative positions are justified.
Our intraday outlook is neutral, and our short-term outlook is neutral. Our medium-term outlook remains bearish, as the S&P 500 index extends its lower highs, lower lows sequence:
Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): neutral
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): neutral
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): bearish
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral
Thursday, April 28, 2016
AUD/USD - Trend Reversal or Just a Bigger Pullback? / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Nadia_Simmons
Earlier today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the consumer price index dropped by 0.2% in the first quarter, missing analysts' forecast. Additionally, consumer prices (year-on-year) rose by 1.3% in the first three months of the year also disappointing expectations. Thanks to these numbers, the Australian dollar declined sharply against the greenback, which pushed AUD/USD under previously-broken important line. Is it enough to trigger further deterioration in the coming days?
Thursday, April 28, 2016
A Gold Revaluation Could Transform Your Financial Status - Overnight / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
By: Nick_Barisheff
David Smith writes: As we move through 2016, the Horsemen of the geopolitical, economic, and social apocalypse are on the march.
China burns through its currency reserves as billions in yuan flee the mainland for safe harbor. Japan prints mountains of yen debt in an effort to create inflation - and thereby the conscious devaluation of its citizens' purchasing power.
Saudi Arabia's gamble of cutting oil prices to the bone in an effort to break the back of the shale oil industry is becoming so costly that it may have to sell a portion of mighty Aramco to outside investors, while keeping secret the amount of its U.S. debt.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Stock Market Mixed, Very Interesting, Volatile FOMC Day / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: Harry_Boxer
The stock market indices had a mixed session and a very interesting volatile day. The day started out with a gap lower on Apple Inc. (AAPL) earnings, went down very sharply on the Nasdaq 100, dropping from 4450 down to 4380, about 70 points from top to bottom, they rallied back to 4409, pulled back to retest the low, made higher lows, went back to the highs again, but couldn’t get back through the 4410 range, and back off. Post FOMC they spurted up toward a retest. A pullback did about a .618 Fibonacci retracement, and they ran right back up to the gap, only to pullback right at the close. The S&P 500 actually pulled through the 4-day resistance highs, and made a nominal new high near 2100 today before falling back to 2095.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Fed Doesn't Budge On US Interest Rates..... / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: Jack_Steiman
The long awaited move towards higher rates still isn't happening any time soon as we heard from our fearless leader, Ms. Yellen, who said that rates will be data dependent. We've heard that line month after month, and what it really means is she's not going to be raising rates any time soon. She doesn't want to spoil the good tidings she has created with her actions over the past several years, which started with fed Bernanke. Keep the ship moving along by keeping rates low enough not to offer any alternatives for folks. So today there were folks out there who thought she would change to a more hawkish stance regarding rates, but they were once again let down by her ruling of "forget about it, it's not happening any time soon" speech. You get the feeling she wants to do it, but you know her hands are tied.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Monetary Policies Misunderstood / Interest-Rates / Money Supply
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Ever since the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) began to consider raising the federal funds rate, which it eventually did in December 2015, a cottage industry has grown up around taper talk. Will the Fed raise rates, or won’t it? Each time a consensus congeals around the answer to that question, all the world’s markets either soar or dive.This obsession with taper talk – the interest rate story – is simple, but strange. Indeed, it is misguided – wrongheaded. So, why the obsession? It is, in part, the result of a Keynesian hangover. The Keynesians focus on interest rates. The mainstream macro model that is widely in use today is referred to as a “New Keynesian” model. The thrust of monetary policy in this model is entirely captured by changes in current and expected interest rates (the price of money). Money is nowhere to be found, however.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Gold Bullion vs Gold Miners / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2016
By: Nick_Barisheff
For thousands of years, gold has been used as money, a store of wealth, fought over and sought after. Over the last 45 years, Western populations have had a mixed impression of gold. A minority of the population understands that gold is a monetary asset that should be held as wealth insurance. A larger percentage of the population is confused about gold because of mainstream sources of information. Many people consider gold a risky investment when in fact gold bullion is not an investment at all, but rather money itself. Just like any fiat currency held in a vault, gold does not pay interest or dividends. Investors often look upon gold mining companies in the same light as physical gold bullion. Gold mining shares are investments, and can be good tactical investments from time to time. However, the characteristics of gold bullion and gold miners are very different. In some ways, those differences are similar to the difference between an insurance policy and shares of an insurance company.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
OECD Suggests BrExit Would Cut Net Migration by 1.2 Million by 2030 / ElectionOracle / EU_Referendum
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The mostly funded by EU member states OECD's Pro-Remain report appears to have badly backfired is its analysis concludes that if the people of Britain voted for BrExit then that would result in 1.2 million FEWER migrants into Britain as average net migration into Britain would fall by 84k per annum and also slow house price inflation. So apparently according to a blundering OECD the people of Britain should vote to REMAIN so that Britain can be flooded by 1.2 million EXTRA migrants (+4.6 million total)!
Thursday, April 28, 2016
MP Naz Shah Punished for Tweets Made During Israel's Genocide of Gaza Palestinian People / Politics / UK Politics
By: N_Walayat
The establishment that has ruled over the British people for centuries, offering illusions of freedom and democracy and mechanisms of consumerism and debt to keep the worker slaves sedated and occupied, today sought to silence a voice of criticism of one of the elites agenda items, that for the emergence of a Greater Israel that has been in progress for near 50 years. One that involves the systematic genocide of the Palestinian people and theft of their land, of which the 2014 Gaza war crimes demonstrated that there were no depths to which the Jewish fundamentalists would sink to exterminate the Palestinian people which included the death of over 500 children and destruction of near 1/3rd of Gaza infrastructure.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
HUI Gold Stocks Update...Beautiful Chartology / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2016
By: Rambus_Chartology
Below is a two year daily chart for the HUI which I first showed you when the HUI broke above the double bottom hump to start its bull market. I call this chart the reverse symmetry chart as shown by the red arrows. How a stock comes down, especially in a strong move, will reverse symmetry back up over the same area. It's more of an art than a science. You can see the rally off of the mid January low found a little resistance at 182 before it broke through.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016
FOMC statement and the Stock Market / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The algos have taken over after the FOMC release. ZeroHedge reports, “ The kneejerk - USD up, stocks down, bonds down - reaction has faded and with The Fed statement pitching its dovish tent back in domestic concerns while keeping a hawkish eye on global developments. The Long bond is back in the green but it appears machines are busier running oil stops higher and dumping gold.”
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Global Recession in 2016 and Beyond - The Obvious Evidence / Economics / Recession 2016
By: Rajveer_Rawlin
Definition of a Recession:
The textbook definition of a recession is two quarters of negative GDP growth. Some examples of recessions include the great depression of the 1930's, the dotcom crash of 2000 and the great recession of 2008.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Stock Market Preliminary Sell Signal / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2016
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX has broken its rally trendline and is challenging Short-term support at 2083.50. It may retest the trendline again before going lower.
SPX is now on an aggressive sell signal.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Why Gold Bugs Need to Stop Listening to The Fear Mongers and Start Thinking for a Change / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
By: Sol_Palha
He that can have patience can have what he will. ~ Benjamin Franklin
We are still not convinced that Gold is fully out of the woods. Peter Schiff is busy telling everyone that it was a bad idea to have sold Gold in 2011, we beg to differ for the trend indicates otherwise, and so does the price of Gold. He is coming out with scary scenarios though they are not as grandiose as James Sinclair's scenario that calls for Gold to move to $50,000 an ounce. Even, when we dream we find it hard to envision such a price, so it is interesting that he can come up with such targets without being under the influence of some strong medicine.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016
BlackRock’s Fink: Fed to Raise Interest Rates by Quarter Point ‘at Best’ / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
By: Bloomberg
Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO at BlackRock, spoke with Erik Schatzker on 'Bloomberg <GO>' this morning.
Fink said governments need to embark on fiscal stimulus to boost the economy: "If we continue to have what I would call a dependency on monetary policy worldwide, I think it is very grim. We are harming savers worldwide with low and negative interest rates." He said monetary policy has "run out of runway" and called the Bank of Japan's negative rate policy an "outright mistake."
He said the Fed will raise interest rates "at best" by another quarter point this year because of weak corporate earnings and uncertainty about the global economy: "I would probably lean more towards a 25 basis point increase. Let's see what happens with the Spanish elections in June, the Brexit elections in June, how the U.S. economy performs in the second quarter. And importantly, what is the consumer's mood into the primaries and after the primaries?"
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Gold More Productive Than Cash?! / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016
By: Axel_Merk
Is gold, often scoffed at as being an unproductive asset, more productive than cash? If so, what does it mean for asset allocation?